Innocent
Urban Contemporary, 2001

Oh look, another boyband. Four pretty lads who claim to be not another boyband. Yawn. And what kind of name is Blue? Sounds like an adult magazine thing, if you ask me.

But to be fair, Blue’s music is decent. The catchy title track is pretty good, right down to the ragga-ish chorus and slick grooves. It’s a bit too Eiffel 65-like at times for my liking though. Their faithful cover of Next’s naughty Too Close isn’t interesting, but there are enough slick R&B inspired tunes and decent ballads to save the day. I especially find Make It Happen smooth and slick, even scarily – dare I say it? – reminiscent to the best of Motown blues and soul.

The ballads are not too schmaltzy. My favorite is Girl I’ll Never Understand, smooth, sexy, and always listenable. If You Come Back is corny, but so earnestly sung that it melts my heart inside. Not exactly Marvin Gaye, but enough.

The boys have decent vocals, nothing much to sing about, but decent enough.

All Rise is a listenable album that never irritates me that much. I won’t be wearing Blue T-shirts and screaming at their MTV videos anytime soon, but I wouldn’t mind giving this one another spin at the player now and then.