Take That are back once more with a brand new album that has more of a dance vibe to it and is certainly a stronger effort than their previous album III.
Since their numbers dropped down to three, Take That have had to reevaluate the direction in which their music takes. The first step to this change was their last album III, which although showed a boldness and experimental style, didn’t seem to flow as well as their previous work did – but thankfully with Wonderland they are back on form.
From the exciting title track all the way through to the sweet and tender ‘It’s All for You’, Wonderland is an album that is consistent in terms of the strength of its lyrics and choruses, while musically attempting to push forward in a new direction to keep them feeling contemporary and fresh.
New single ‘Giants’ is instantly catchy and recognisable in a similar way that ‘Shine’ was on their first comeback album Beautiful World was in terms of being bold, confident and definite crowd pleaser.
In contrast to this, ‘Superstar’ is very much rock influenced and feels very much that it was written with the upcoming tour in mind. But it is another highlight on a album that has plenty of surprises and songs that are guaranteed to delight fans.
But there are certain moments that still feel slightly flat and take a little bit of getting used to. ‘New Day’ for example feels slightly clunky musically that sounds as though Take That couldn’t decide what type of song it was going to be – even though lyrically it is equally as strong as the other songs on the album.
Meanwhile, on ‘Lucky Stars’ despite the catchiness of the music and strength of the chorus, it still reveals the lack of emotional depth on many of the songs that we are used to hearing from Take That. But perhaps this isn’t a bad thing, creating an album that is lively, enjoyable and entertaining that distracts from the pain of real life even just for a brief moment of time.
Overall, it sounds like Take That have been revitalised and have plenty of energy left in them to create invigorating albums such as this. A solid and greatly enjoyable album.
Wonderland is available to buy through Amazon now.