Busted very much so seem like a band who are writing what they assume people want to hear rather than. The track "What Happened to Your Band" was previously performed live by one of James Bourne's other bands, Son of Dork back in 2007.

During this trip, they also continued writing and began recording for their planned fourth studio album. The influence of international groups such as Blink-182 and Sum 41 remains but Busted keep their sound with a distinctly British edge. The band’s hugely successful debut album ‘Busted’ featured hit singles ‘What I Go To School For’, ‘Year 3000’, ‘You Said No’, ‘Sleeping With The Light On’ and ‘Crashed The Wedding’.To give Busted their dues, there’s probably more energy and sharp guitar work than the majority of John Feldmann’s offerings in modern pop-punk (and that says a lot), but there’s such a flavourlessness to the likes of Nineties and Reunion in the way that they lift liberally from the most nebulous touchstone of pop-punk imaginable, bringing an incredibly populist approach forward but very little else. The rockiest moment on the album comes on the storming Nostalgia, which suggests that a more straightforward rock album could be in the band’s future. Busted have grown-up without growing old with their fourth album ‘Half Way There’ which is out now and currently sitting at Number 2 in the album charts.

Much like All Saints‘ most recent album ‘Testament’, it’s a band fully at home singing and playing on the sound everyone loves them for, and in a round about way, actually makes for a refreshingly honest and very modern pop album. Where once Busted would be singing about fancying their school teacher in ‘ What I Go to School For’, now they’re heading back to school 10 years later in ‘ Reunion’, an upbeat record with plenty of punchy guitar riffs that hones in on the idea of catching up with old friends. The started the campaign for the new album by playing three chaotic sold-out shows in a day at the 100 Club, and then dropped a throwback video for ‘Nineties’which revived the days of Top of the Pops, Blind Date, Nirvana and white-suited boy bands. The fact that it’s almost laughably shallow and conforms to the most basic stereotypes of the genre doesn’t help either, but on the whole, this all paints Busted as a band that are probably best off being left in the past.They constantly revisited each idea to make the album as strong as it could possibly be, and also had the opportunity to work with their dream producer Gil Norton, the man behind classic albums from Foo Fighters and Pixies. James Bourne said in an interview, "Once you get halfway through the album, you're officially half way there". After months of speculation Busted finally confirmed their reunion in November 2015 and hit the road with their Pigs Can Fly Tour the following year. With 10 songs on the tracklist, Half Way There isn’t a particularly lengthy album and those 10 tracks rarely do much to distinguish themselves from each other either, ranging from guitar track to slightly slower guitar track so that the album blurs into a vaguely catchy whole if you play it in full. Inoffensive, cookie-cutter tunes like “Nostalgia”, “Reunion” and “Nineties” sound like sonic time capsules with nostalgic themes, and in all honesty, it’s done pretty well.

They wrote more material than ever, much of it at Bourne’s apartment in North London where they spent so much time together back when they first started the band. Half Way There’ has been released on streaming, download, CD, black vinyl and coloured vinyl formats.Yes, at times, the album does feel dated – a drawback of an album based on nostalgia – and yes, it can be difficult to determine where the group fits into the modern musical landscape, but Half Way There is so uniquely Busted that it doesn’t really matter. The ‘ Year 3000’-esque ‘ Shipwrecked in Atlantis’ delivers another fantastical flight of fancy, while ‘ Race to Mars’ takes a look at the space race in a tribute to Elon Musk and Tesla, and once again taps into the band’s penchant for a pop culture reference or two in its lyrics. By your logic, Asking Alexandria and Falling In Reverse are better than Touche Amore and Departures simply because more people know who they are. It’s quickly followed by the twice-previously recorded (by Bourne’s band Son of Dork and by McBusted for their self-titled album) ‘ What Happened To Your Band’ about the band’s split, which is given a new lease of life amidst this album of stylistic throwbacks and retro Busted vibes to become one of the album’s stand-out tracks. There’s something refreshing about listening to a pop band that isn’t trying to conform with what is charting well and just doing what they want.