Seven No.01 singles. Six albums, two of them chart-toppers. One hiatus. One reunion. Hundreds of shows. Thousands of fans. Millions of streams. Countless awards. After all of that, McFly still have one question for you.

Where Did All The Guitars Go?

Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter are taking things into their own hands in a way they never anticipated. Throwing off the shackles of expectations, focusing on the things they love the most about making music together and delivering their biggest, boldest and most brilliantly noisy statement yet. That statement is ‘Power To Play’, an all-out celebration of rock music in all forms that takes McFly back to the very reason they started their journey in the first place. “I think that we have got to a place where we have simplified the process, removed the hurdles and started to write music the way we used to,” Harry smiles.

Off the back of their reunion in 2019, beautifully chronicled in their 2020 documentary ‘All About Us’, the four realised how they could live their lives away from McFly in a way that it could be the cherry on top rather than the whole cake. “We’re a different band now than we were,” Tom muses. “We all know there is life outside of McFly now, and when we were young, it consumed our lives so much. It needed to, but it was a lot. Returning to the band after discovering who we are without it, we saw that we are better together. That’s why the band needs to be fun now. It needs to have a reason for us to be together.”

This all culminates in ‘Power To Play’, a record where the fun really is at the forefront. There’s hair metal cheese, glam rock glitter, heavy metal attitude and punk snottiness, all wrapped tightly into a carefree and cartoonish shell. There are hints of Van Halen, Metallica, Poison, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, and even a bit of Fugazi thrown in for good measure. Produced by Danny alongside Jason Perry, with help from friends old and new James Bay and Steven Battelle, it is a record built on pure collaboration bringing the best out of everyone. There’s the all-out worship of ‘God of Rock & Roll’ and wind-through-your-hair liberation of ‘Taking Back Tonight’ rubbing shoulders with the vulnerable ‘Make It Out Alive’ and furious ‘I’m Fine’. There’s synth-led euphoria with ‘Route 55’ and reckless abandon via ‘Land Of The Bees’.

It is the sound of four best friends being best friends, pushing each other to the limits of their creation and celebrating the results. Playing as loud and lairy as they like and not worrying about the consequences, experimenting with time signatures and song structures that would have terrified the younger versions of themselves and loving every second spent together, the band have never felt this unstoppable.