1999 Vengaboys: Boom Boom Boom Boom

Being more Dutch Europop/dance, it would be convenient to report that 'Boom Boom Boom Boom' took up where 'No Limits' left off. Only it doesn't. Quite the opposite in fact. Lead vocalist Kim Sasabone tries to start a fire with her opening "If you're alone and you need a friend. Someone to make you forget your problems. Just come along baby, take my hand" invite of a one night stand, but it's melody is a direct lift from Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' and besides, it's soon washed out by 'Boom' cubed's mallet simple beat, eighties vocoder laced "Vengaboys are back in town" and "Whoa oh whoa oh" interruptions and a wheezy Wurlitzer parp that sounds of an age where keyboards you can plug in to the mains were something of a novelty. But in 1999 they weren't, and 'Boom Boom Boom Boom' manages to reduce itself to a patchwork of the most obviously garish dance motifs to date; I know this kind of crass, overtly good time party pop isn't meant to be taken that seriously, but I at least expect those involved to have made some kind of effort in serving it up - 'Boom Boom Boom Boom' is effortless alright, but in all the wrong ways. And it's not for me.