Times really have changed. When supergroups like The Beatles, Santana and The Rolling Stones came out with a collection of their greatest hits, that’s exactly what they were. But then you have albums like this. And you wonder when exactly it was that everybody floated right out of the stratum of simple sense.
“Five” is one of those dime-a-dozen boy bands whose only claim to fame is one mindlessly repetitive (and mindlessly repeated) hit or cover version of somebody else’s musical genius. “Five” barely comes into the latter category. It does have a cover version (Queen’s immortal “We Will Rock You”), but it sounds so much like the original that you wonder why they even bothered recording it.
After this, it’s all just mindless sputterings about “love”, “honey” and “baby” underscored by an unimaginative musical rhythm which belongs to the New Age pop sound. Some of the worst of the lot are “Inspector Gadget”, “Keep On Movin’” (which has a Chumbawamba feel) and “When The Lights Go Out”. All the others sound just like each other and aren’t really worth the time. Give it a miss - and make sure everyone else does too.
This article was first published on 24 Dec 2001.