Big Time Rush
24/Seven
(Columbia Records)

America’s premier boyband is back with their third studio album. This time around, the guys exert more creative control, with writing credits on almost every track. The music, like on their first two albums, is true pop, taking influence from rock, R&B, and dance music. The lyrics may be a little cliché and simplistic, but the songwriting and arrangements are consistently great, and the production on 24/Seven is noticeably better than on the band’s previous efforts.

Though BTR is responsible for starting the current boyband revival, their association with Nickelodeon and their television show have cast them in an undeservedly poorer light than UK counterparts One Direction. Like the Monkees before them, Big Time Rush is struggling to prove their validity and autonomy as serious artists. This is particularly interesting in the world of boybands, where prefabrication and high-production values are prerequisites.

On 24/Seven, each of the four guys shines vocally, and their songwriting proves to be more harmonically adventurous than most pop groups today, recalling the classic late-90s boyband era. Though not every song stands out from the pack, the quality is more consistently great here than on BTR and Elevate. The opening title track and lead single, “Like Nobody’s Around,” and the reggae-styled “Crazy for U,” in particular are among the band’s best songs to date.