Day26 - Day26

Bitchassness. Actually, I don’t even know what that means because I never watched a single episode of Making the Band 4. As big of a Diddy fan as there is, I stuck with him through all three seasons of Making the Band 2 (D-A, B-A, N-DDDDDD), which even involved me leaving my college dorm room when the cable was out to go home and watch the picking of the band, and then three full seasons of Making the Band 3 (Danity Kane). By the time number 4 rolled around I was pretty sure I’d seen everything I wanted to see. Making the Band 4 was going to be version 3 except with guys. No Thanks.

With hours invested in their story, I bought each group’s CD with the expectation of hearing a few good tracks with fortunate production (“Why”/ “Right Now”) and jamming to a couple of songs I recognized from the show (“Do You Know” / “Sleep on It”). Day26 didn’t have the latter benefit but I wanted to give them a fair shot on a low bar anyway.

Right off the bat I was not impressed. “I’m The Reason” sounds a little too much like “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson except instead of one good voice, it’s a lot of decent voices singing about how they’re still thug and how girls shouldn’t play them now. It’s funny that people who wind up making a band always have the same cookie cutter material but can’t put their own spin on it given how they literally stood in line to catch their break.

Next, I was reminded how I recently had the chance to call in to Russ Parr and bring Day26 to sing “Got Me Going” at my prom. If I had a prom, I would do it because this song is hot. I especially like the guy with the 2nd verse. “In my Bed” follows with a extra dope beat. I think the hook is a tad over complicated but I like this song. Doing a sex song like this immediately makes me draw comparison to THE Bad Boy boy band: 112. Here, Day26 raised the bar for themselves.

“Come With Me” is hot too and more importantly sounds like progress for the members of Day26 learning how to sing and vibe off each other. The song “Co-Star” is a good effort as the group sings:

We both know what will go down on tonight
You’ve been teasin’ until the time was right
So let’s go. It’s your show.
All I wanna do is Co-Star

At first I heard “seasoned” instead of “teasin’.” I like my version better, probably because I was in a better mood once realized I wasn’t going to be wasting my time with this disc. With 112 setting the standard, Day26 comes through with “Are We In This Together”, the best track on the CD because 1) the first guy singing is a complete throwback ’90s R&B singer and 2) collectively, they put their own [good] spin on common material.

Overall, Day26 shows some potential on a handful of good songs and can be overlooked on mostly everything else. They will face extra criticism as products of the media which will likely allow their individual egos to stand in the way of making any substantial progress during the growing pains they’ll face. The two or three group members who sang particular verses I like will definitely be worth watching in the future. If someone wants to give me some background on these guys, it will be appreciated.

Favorite Songs: “Got Me Going”, “In My Bed”, “Co-Star” and “Don’t Fight This Feeling.”

Final Review: Not bad but also nothing special. My assessment for Making the Band groups holds true. The self titled debut of Day26 is worth a listen, especially if you watched the show. Download it.