As the meeting point between One Direction’s widescreen MOR and 5 Seconds of Summer’s pop-punk, UK boyband-with-instruments the Vamps might struggle to justify their existence. Yet with five top 10 singles and a gold-selling debut album to their name, the stats prove otherwise. With second effort Wake Up, which features a ludicrous 18 songs, the consensus is to chuck loads of styles together and hope something sticks; luckily for them it occasionally does. The title track, for example, is shouty pop at its best, while the synth-heavy Cheater adds spite to the PG-13 lyrics. Even the odd foray into electro-pop (Windmills, Written Off) is held together by their enthusiasm. As with many recent pop albums, however, Wake Up would make a great EP.
