Boy bands are so close to parody already that there's almost no reason to make fun of them. Until now: 2gether, MTV's Spinal Tap-style mockumentary on the subject, which satirizes the rivalry between fictional groups 2gether and Whoa! (a la Backstreet Boys vs. 'N Sync), finds lots of comedic air in the boy-band balloon. It's sometimes hard to hear where the joke begins on the soundtrack: All the requisite boy-band elements are here, including lushly overdubbed harmonies, sensitive acoustic guitars, overblown strings and canned dance beats. The antiseptic ballad "Visualize" could even be a straight-up hit for someone like 98 Degrees. But when lyrics like "I'm losing my hair/And my vision is shady/Last night I dreamt of an overweight lady" creep out of the mix, you realize you're wandering closer to Ween than to the Backstreets. Teen pop's horny kiddie-porn subtext is hilariously explicit: "We've been down this road before and we've always made it through," sings an ersatz idol on "Before We Say Goodbye," "but in case we break up, can I still have sex with you?" The teen truth of lines like "You were lovin' me with Carson Daly on your mind" makes 2gether even better than the real thing. (RS 836)
