24 January 1997
Uh-oh: I see the name of Frank Farian lurking here. Farian was the German producer behind Boney M, in which two members weren’t actually singing on the records, and Milli Vanilli, in which the only two members weren’t actually singing on the records. There’s no suggestion that Marty Cintron, the lead No Mercy-er, wasn’t actually singing here, and the two other lads just seem to be the standard lads-at-the-back we’ve seen in most ’90s boy bands. Maybe the world was catching up with Farian, as opposed to just the music press and Grammy committee catching up with him.
I hadn’t realised that ‘Where Do You Go’ had verses and pre-choruses; my recollection of hearing it on the radio was of the chorus again and again, squeezed for all its juice content until the pips squeaked. Honestly, how many times is he going to ask where you go? Otherwise, this is a German record producer’s idea of a Miami Boyzone: bland Havana-lite music under bland lyrics, with boyband lads wearing billowy shirts in the exceedingly turquoise and yellow video. Maybe it went to number one in January for the same reason people used to read sun holiday brochures in winter. I couldn’t care less.
