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The "Miss America" performance was a disaster. The concerts on the television show exposed a haphazardly assembled band of mediocre talents -- certainly not one that merits extensive and expensive national promotion, nor one that seems destined to wear the mantle of outrageous success currently draped on *NSYNC's shoulders. With the album release date as-yet unscheduled and a show on hiatus until as late as March, O-Town needed to generate some buzz beyond the rumblings of Making the Band loyalists.
Then "Liquid Dreams" hit the airwaves, and its video premiered on Total Request Live and in a cushy primetime berth on ABC just after America's Funniest Home Videos. Yes, Funniest Home Videos is an embarrassing carcass of a show rife with forced jokes, canned laughter, and inexplicable idiocy (Hi, Geena Davis? Are you listening?). But it seems very sensible to juxtapose O-Town with a show whose putrescence gives Making the Band episodes the look of a highbrow PBS documentary.
And so, the moment arrives. America's Funniest Home Videos comes to its merciful end, joining 7th Heaven in proving that a show's title doesn't have to be accurate, we then see the O-Town gang hanging out, all Benetton chic, pretending to laugh and play and be merry. Dan has divested himself of usual apparel, opting for something that's neither a vest nor a V-neck. Perhaps it's a shirt stiched together from all that extra underwear he brought with him. Suddenly, Jacob gets serious and faces the camera. Whoa, there -- Jacob has funky-ass dreadlocks. They're long and deep brown. Someone's got just a little bit of TyJuan's wild style. With an annoying smile. Erik's hair is standing on end, which looks considerably frightening given that it's a bit long. He resembles Beaker from The Muppet Show whenever the puppet gets electrocuted. I guess that makes Lou the portly bespectacled scientist giving the orders. Anyway, the gist of it is that O-Town wants us to enjoy the video. Thanks, guys. We will, if you aren't in it and the song isn't playing.
Apropos to the title, "Liquid Dreams" begins with magnified water drops falling onto a hard surface. One of the elongated drops rotates sideways and the producers want us to believe we're staring at the mouth of a tunnel -- but by the look of it, I'm staring into an unrolled condom. I suppose that's appropriate, as both places could involved in some tawdry O-Town liquid dream.