The Vamps: Wake Up review – don't call them a boyband

If ever you thought you needed an 18-song album from a pop-rock band of men in their late teens and early 20s, this is it. Perhaps desperate to be taken seriously – as a real band, you see, not a boyband – four-piece the Vamps seem keen to prove that they have a lot to say. They liken love to an overflowing mountain on Volcano, drowning frontman Brad Simpson’s rather impressive vocal in paint-by-numbers drum and bass and an inexplicable rap hook by Silentó. On I Found a Girl, they lament the horror of falling for a woman who turns out to be a lesbian. And Runaway crams in yet another major-chord progression in order to ensure that every song here sounds like one you’ve heard before. All band members can play and sing quite capably, so it’s a shame they didn’t experiment with the boundaries of pop songwriting on this flighty dalliance with reggae, folk, EDM and powerpop.