Apollo 5 - Famous

Stream Famous here (Spotify)
Download Famous here (Swedish iTunes)

A new Swedish boy band? Well, don't mind if I do - particularly when the debut single is as fine as Apollo 5's Famous. The five lads, individually known as Niklas, Hampus, Herman, Oliver, and Nicholai, have been perfecting their craft over the past year through a number of You Tube performances of other people's songs as well as live performances- both of which has won them a sizeable following. Famous is the rather good culmination of these efforts and an excellent introduction to the band. It's actually more Coldplay than Backstreet Boys due to the fact the guys play their own instruments as well as sing. The verses are melancholy reminiscing, where (set to a strumming guitar) an emotive fueled vocal ponders the time when they gave their heart to someone who treated it carelessly. So what do you do when your heart needs mending? You can sit around moping or you can go out and show that person what they missed out on! And that's what Apollo 5 do - the verses accelerate into an exhilarating chorus that explodes with a vibrant, euphoric wall of sound and gloriously blended voices. "I'm better off now that I've gotten famous/I'm better off now that I'm on my own" they sing with a cheeky glee that makes this the best kiss-off anthem in many a year. The percolating hand-clap beat gives the song an addictive energy that is too darn tooting hard to resist. Overall, it's a tremendous debut single that lingers in the brain long after the song has finished. Can't wait to see what they do next :)