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The Wanted's 2012 release The EP combines tracks off the British boy band's two previous albums, including the group's 2010 self-titled debut and 2011's Battleground. In that sense, the album works as a kind of introduction to the U.S. market for the band that signed a deal in 2011 with the American Def Jam Records. Featured here are such hits as "All Time Low," "Glad You Came," "Gold Forever," "Heart Vacancy," and "Lightning." Also included are two newly recorded cuts, "Chasing the Sun" and "Satellite." Although the Wanted fall into the multi-member teen pop tradition of such groups as *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Take That, musically they evince more of a dance-rock, synth pop sound that is influenced as much by the modern rock uplift of Coldplay and Snow Patrol as it is the more club-oriented R&B of the Justins: Timberlake and Bieber. Ultimately, there is a musical sophistication and higher maturity level to the Wanted's sound than you might expect, and given that The EP compiles some of the best cuts from two albums, it makes for an engaging listen with broad cross-generational appeal. ~ Matt Collar
