When a vacancy appears in pop music, it doesn't take long to fill it. As
Busted moved out of pure pop into more serious material, the way was left open for
McFly to capture teenage girls' hearts with their debut album,
Room on the 3rd Floor. Named after the character in the Back to the Future trilogy and sounding like an updated 2000s garage band with close harmonies and raw guitars,
McFly opened their album with two number one singles, "5 Colours in Her Hair" and "Obviously," so
Room on the 3rd Floor really couldn't fail -- and it didn't, hitting the top on its first week of release. "That Girl," the third single released, could have sat easily on a
Beach Boys album from the 1960s, or possibly even the early
Beatles with the count of "one two three four" before a guitar crashes in. "Surfer Babe" (fairly predictably) and "Down by the Lake" were also
Beach Boys-sounding tracks. It's not that good, however -- just a fun summery mid-2000s pop album from four lads who sound as if they were enjoying themselves singing mostly about girls. "Met This Girl" also took its influences from
the Rolling Stones of the 1960s with a touch of
Manfred Mann's fast-paced blues. "Everybody likes to party on a Saturday night," claimed the lads on the track "Saturday Night," and if you were about 13 years old and female, this was the album of summer 2004. ~ Sharon Mawer