The Magnets: All This Time

It's difficult to know on what basis to critique The Magnets – the global chuggernaut filling venues night after night after night with their a cappella, instruments-be-damned, high energy song-fests.

Technically, there's few who can hold a light to this six-piece. The close harmonies are pitch perfect and nicely balanced. The bass is deep and thunderous – perhaps a little too much so, sitting punishingly high in the mix at times. The man making the drum sounds with his mouth, well he makes extremely good drum noises indeed. With his mouth. The dance moves are slick, if a little cheesy. But that's fine. This is energetic kitch, not physical theatre.

It's thinking about the artistic choices where this gets a bit trickier. On occasion, the "little bit of Magnets magic" really works. A stripped down version of 'Together in Electric Dreams' with the bass leading the vocals is a luscious, optimistic ballad. And a Magnets original, 'Running Around', sees them creating music well-suited to the tonal range. But a version of Dire Straits' 'Romeo & Juliet' serves only to strip the charm from an original which delights in moments of calm, and replace it with a somewhat stifling doo-wop rock out. It's undeniably impressive, but feels a little pointless. A juke box finale in which the audience select hits from across the decades for the group to sing feels like posh karaoke.

In sum, this is light, enjoyable entertainment from skilled performers.