XOXO Entertainment
Pop, 2025
Boybands are like cockroaches. After a decade or so of “hiatus”, where egos and hubris are shattered by failed solo careers, the members will realize that, as much as they have grown to loathe one another, they have to stick together and keep going even though they are pushing 40, even 50, and still have to sing songs about adolescent crushes.
Well, 98° manages to keep more of their dignity than others, since they started out singing somewhat grown-up ballads and midtempo tunes.
Plus, 98° is the rare boyband that have genuine abs and biceps — well, three of them anyway — and even now when their physiques are best described as getting to dadbod territory, at least they don’t look like 75-year-olds that spent too much time partying and abusing substances.
This brings us to Full Circle, which technically is about half a full album, as there are five songs here and five more are redone old songs: the treacly ballad Invisible Man, the bopper Because of You, the only song of theirs that qualify as “awesome” The Hardest Thing, Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche), and two versions of the diabetic anthem I Do (Cherish You), one of which is in Tanglish because I guess the people of the Philippines still love them to pieces.
Honestly, these “new” versions don’t sound drastically different from the original versions, so I don’t see the point unless 98° is doing all this to give the middle finger to their old record labels like they are Taylor Swift or something.
As for the new songs, the problem is they all seem to have stepped out of some time warp and operate like it’s still 2000.
Tremble has a nice beat and catchy chorus, and I may go as far as to say that it’s their second most awesome song after The Hardest Thing, but the other four songs are on the bland and forgettable side.
Still, these guys’ harmonies are still on point. The voices of Nick Lachey and Jeff Timmons are still top notch and complement one another very well, demonstrating why there is something sorely missing when they tried to go solo — these guys’ different timbres work better together than on their own.
However, the old songs are… well, the old songs, nothing worth dashing to tune in, while the new songs barely move on from the last time these guys were more popular. Perhaps this is what their fans want, and that is enough?
At any rate, better materials with better lyrics can’t hurt if 98° is really serious about trying a comeback.
PS: What happened to Microphone? Sure, the fans revolted when the song is clearly about… oral favors, but the song has a melody and a bop that are far superior to most of the new songs on this album. They should have put that song in!
