Search - Boys Like Girls :: Love Drunk

Public Drunkenness

Rudy Palma | NJ | 09/10/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The problem with Boys Like Girls' 2006 self-titled debut was that the group sounded like a mid-decade answer to earlier bands such as Simple Plan or Good Charlotte. It was easy to imagine putting various CDs into a stereo and hitting the shuffle button only to guess which group was blaring through the speakers. A few tracks share this on new sophomore set "Love Drunk," but the majority retain distinct flavor.



The verses surrounding the chorus of the Top 40 title track are probing and intriguing, and the jagged, fluctuating ear candy chorus of opening cut "Heart Heart Heartbreak," another potential hit single, indicates that the band has grown stronger. "The Real Thing," which smacks of Bon Jovi (in this case, a good thing) has an awesome lyric which works in all the right spots - relatable sans cliches, stream-of-conscious without being offbeat - as well as a winning, bombastic melody and awesome guitar riffs.



These are the kinds of songs that stick around in the minds of listeners upon repeated plays without wearing out their welcome prematurely, and they make merely adequate tracks like "Shot Heard 'Round the World" and the cute but less interesting "Contagious" sound better by rubbing against them.



Of particular interest are the ballads, the best of which find the band hitting a particular stride and threshold of quality. It is a lyrically banal coming-of-age tune, but "Someone Like You," with its solid, memorable melody and soul-searching, emotionally sincere vocal performance from frontman Martin Johnson elevate it to a stone cold winner. The lo-fi closer "Go" has beauty and bite, and "Two Is Better Than One," which is aided more by Taylor Swift's big-thing-of-the-moment star power than quality vocals (she does fine, but technically she is not ideal), is a potential monster hit with its sweeping arrangements and over-the-top romantic idealism. It is precision-tooled to win over legions of young women and annoy their boyfriends for extended lengths of time.



"Love Drunk" is a sturdy collection of tunes that avoids the sophomore slump. Boys Like Girls up their ante considerably. This record is bound to spin off hits for at least a year."

Boys Like Girls Mix It Up On 'Love Drunk'

Lance G. Augustine | The Midwest, USA | 09/08/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Since their first album didn't exactly take the U.S. by storm, I wasn't too surprised to hear that their sophomore effort leans much more on the pop side of pop punk, with the first three songs in particular crafted to do well on the Singles Charts. Still, a good portion of this record will remind you of the first, and Boys Like Girls mix things up even more this time around with a few songs that try to connect with listeners on a deeper level.



As mentioned, the first three songs use every trick in the production book to come up with some extremely catchy tunes. "Heart Heart Heartbreak" combines what sounds like portions of The Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" with plenty of trendy vocal effects to have you singing along quickly. Likewise, "Love Drunk" and "She's Got A Boyfriend Now" use the latest favorite drum machine and synth sounds along with plenty of background "Whoah, Ohahs" and "Heys" to be as current as possible in the pop department, and I must say the results are sure to achieve their intended results...I'd be surprised if this record doesn't sell better than the first. Even if you don't like this style, the good news is that no matter how these songs are produced, you still get frontman Martin Johnson's late '90's rock stylings, both vocally and melodically, scattered throughout the album.



"Two Is Better Than One", featuring Taylor Swift, is the first of four songs that use a simple (but effective) approach in an attempt to move listeners emotionally...acoustic guitar, strings, real drums and a slight country flavor make this song one of the album's highlights. Martin's vocals blend nicely with Taylor's, and there's a down-to-earth quality about this song that really makes it beautiful...at least it does for me. A couple of somewhat straightforward BLG rockers are up next, with "Contagious" sounding like its beat is based on Toni Basil's "Hey Micki (She's So Fine)", and "Real Thing", which also starts itself off with classic '80s rock riffs in the verse before heading into a more conventional BLG chorus.



"Someone Like You" is another one of the simply arranged, slower songs with good melody and lyrics ("Running from Jesus", "Fighting My Demons" in the chorus) that I find myself gravitating towards...this is a side of the band I'm really liking. Another decent rocker follows ("The Shot Heard 'Round The World), with fresh enough melodies and chord progressions that it doesn't sound too much like any other song, and for some reason starts off with several seconds of the sounds of heavy breathing.



I really like "The First One", a mid tempo, melodic tune about your first broken heart being the worst, even though it isn't necessarily very original. Some songs sound like they would fit well on the debut album, like "Chemicals Collide".

Finally, "Go" uses acoustic guitar, cello and other string instruments along with interesting percussion as a backdrop to the final poignant, stripped-down but beautifully melodic piece of this record (ending as an instrumental). Overall, there's a lot to like here, even as this album is less rock and more pop.



"

Disappointing....wait, no....crappy

Todd Fitzgerald | Harrisonburg, VA | 09/28/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'll do the requisite 1-star review I guess...



The vocals on this album are so annoyingly hammed up it just about killed it for me immediately: when he sang "...but now I'm hung o-vahhh" I wanted to stab myself. Knives were downstairs though. Clearly their target audience has shifted decisively toward people with training bras.



The next day I gave it all a second listen, thinking I wasn't in the mood or something. I really liked most of the first one after all. But no! It was just as annoying, hooray!



So...there's too much electronic BS. They had these things in the first album, what are they called...guitars and drums. Hard to tell now. That wouldn't really matter except the songs are genuinely so much worse than the first. Some seem to start off alright but the choruses almost all fell flat. So many times I thought "that's it?" The answer was "yes".



But let's see, in order to salvage something from this, Shot Heard 'Round the World is okay. The slow songs aren't my taste but they're pleasant enough I guess. And hmm, Real Thing I don't think I'll burn at the stake.



Instead I'd recommend All Time Low's new album. It has the same annoying electronic-y stuff but the songs are actually good, so I don't care."