Busted (2002 Busted album)

Busted is the self-titled debut album by English pop rock band Busted. It was released in the UK in September 2002 and peaked at number 2 the following January after the success of second single "Year 3000", which reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. Five singles were released from the album: "What I Go to School For", "Year 3000", "You Said No", "Hurra, hurra, die Schule brennt" (released in continental Europe only) and "Sleeping with the Light On".

Busted was the 8th best-selling album of 2003 in the UK. The album has sold over 1.2 million copies and been certified as 4× Platinum in the UK. The album spent 77 weeks on the UK Top 75 Albums chart.

Both "What I Go to School For" and "Year 3000" were covered by the Jonas Brothers, and released on their 2006 album It's About Time.

Background
With the original line-up of Busted having broken up in 2001, guitarist James Bourne and bassist Matt Willis set about finding a new band member. Charlie Simpson and Tom Fletcher both originally made it in, but the latter was cut from the final lineup.

Six tracks on the album were co-written with John McLaughlin and Steve Robson, who often collaborate with each other. The other remaining songs were written by the band themselves.

Singles
The first single released from Busted was "What I Go to School For", which reached number 3. This was followed by "Year 3000", which reached number 2, "You Said No" and "Sleeping with the Light On". "You Said No" peaked at number 1 and "Sleeping with the Light On" peaked at number 3. With "You Said No", Busted entered the Guinness World Records for being the first artist to have their first three singles enter the top three of the UK Singles Chart in ascending order.

A European-only single, "Hurra, hurra, die Schule brennt", was released on the same date as "You Said No" was released in the UK.

"You Said No" is titled "Crash and Burn" on the original album release, but its title was changed for the single release because of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. In an interview with Newsround, Willis said, "We were deciding what single to go for just as that happened and we really wanted to use Crash and Burn but we thought the name was inappropriate - it would have been bad taste." Simpson also stated in 2016 that "we thought it was a bit insensitive around 9/11."

On the cassette release of the album, "Losing You" is advertised as a single. However, the song never was released as a single, and it is unknown whether it was planned to be or if this was a mistake. In 2018, Willis said that they would never play the song live, stating "We've never played that song. For a very good reason – we don't like it. It's not very good, it's quite embarrassing."

Reception
AllMusic states: "[Busted] slide smoothly between... dull teen pop ballads with the sickeningly overwrought vocals typical of the genre... and relatively more creative stuff that punches up the formula with pop-ternative production and smirking, yet still squeaky clean lyrical witticisms. At best it's BBMak with better cheekbones; at worst, Busted is a neutered Sum 41". On bbc.co.uk, Jacqueline Hodges wrote: "Think a younger, British Wheatus or Blink-182 junior and you will be along the right lines. Their cheeky and geeky Green Day-type lyrics... are endearingly refreshing in these days of Gareth Gates and Ronan Keating mush". Q was more positive, Dan Stubbs writing: "Tales of copping off, time travel and a five-fingered fantasy about a schoolteacher with a nice bottom are delivered through inspired one-liners and clever gimmicks".

B-sides
Busted recorded a number of B-sides for their album campaign, including a number of classic covers, including cover versions of "Brown Eyed Girl", "Fun Fun Fun" and "Mrs Robinson", as well as new tracks including "Late Night Sauna", "My Good Friend" and "Last Summer", as well as the demo version of "Year 3000". The version of "Year 3000" which appears as the B-side to "Sleeping with the Light On" is the version which the band presented to Universal Music before they were signed by the label. "My Good Friend" has never been released on CD, and only appears on the cassette release of "You Said No", becoming one of the rarest Busted tracks around. The demo version of "Year 3000" was also only released on cassette, meaning it is also very rare and hard to find.

Track listing

 * "You Said No" was originally titled "Crash and Burn" prior to the album's re-issue.

Personnel

 * James Bourne – guitars, vocals, keys, production
 * Charlie Simpson – guitars, vocals, drums
 * Matt Willis – bass, vocals
 * Steve Robson – production, synths