Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls (Album)
» Starting Line - Gaelic Club, The, NSW - February 28, 2008
» Soundwave Festival 2008 - Sydney Park, NSW - February 25, 2008
A stock standard debut from a typical American pop/punk/emo outfit that isn't willing to push the boundaries.
By no means is Boys Like Girls’ self titled debut a shocker; in fact, it has some standout moments, most notably Five Minutes to Midnight, a punchy rocker that cleverly references the Doomsday Clock in a song that tells of a new love that helps to save a life that was spinning out of control. However, scattered between a handful of radio hits (The Great Escape, Hero/Heroine) are a handful of major misses - Learning to Fall is pitiful, reminiscent of a Kelly Clarkson B-Side, both lyrically and musically.
Essentially, this is a record whose catchiness is surpassed only by its lack of substance. Like most successful mainstream American pop/punk records of the past decade, it is produced all too well, masking any kind of earthly charm that was once attached to it. Sure, the vocals are strong and yes, the band can play to a click track, but it lacks the kind of spark that gives an album its personality.
What appeal it does posses lies in its simple hooks and choruses. Dance Hall Drug (a song which lead singer Martin Johnson confesses was written about his concern with today’s youth, claiming that “...many kids are growing up too fast. 13 year olds are giving each other hand jobs at the back of the bus”) is a foot-tapper that will inevitably end up at high rotation in your mind-cogs after the first few listens. By the same token, the first 16 seconds of Hero/Heroine could quite easily be the intro to a Bloc Party classic (that is as far as the Bloc Party comparisons go – trust me).
Good, but not great. Catchy, but not contagious. This is an album that any new, half-arsed emo kid should own.
