Boys Like Girls - Love Drunk
Record Label: Columbia/Red Ink
Release Date: September 8, 2009
After 4 years without any new material, the Boston pop-punkers Boys Like Girls have resurfaced with sophomore album Love Drunk. But was this album really worth the wait?
While fans have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this album, it appears Boys Like Girls have imitated the sound of many popular mainstream bands.
When you hear the first track off Love Drunk, you may think that you've left your Bon Jovi CD in the stereo as the guitar effects and vocals of "Heart Heart Heartbreak" sound so similar to Bon Jovi's style. Already unoriginal, we now hear their first single "Love Drunk." Now the guitar chime in the beginning of this song sounds very reminiscent to The Who's "Baba O'Riley" along with the chorus imitating The Killers "Somebody Told Me". Still, the song does hit listeners with a beautiful key change in its chorus towards the end that will keep this an overplayed song on the radio for months to come. Next we hear "She's Got a Boyfriend Now", an addition to the album that shows some good from Boys Like Girls as they have not left their catchy hooks behind. Besides a catchy chorus though, the song is nothing mind-breaking. Now, they settle it down with an acoustic track called "Two Is Better Than One", which features superstar Taylor Swift. Behind lead singer Martin Johnson's singing, Swift's voice appears very indistinguishable, and you may not even notice her singing in the chorus unless you look at the album and see her name featured.
The creativity/originality by Boys Like Girls grows worse as the next song "Contagious", starts out with exactly the same as Bowling For Soup song "High School Never Ends". As usual, they still come back with a catchy chorus, but still continue to keep the album cliché, and a huge letdown for fans. I mean, come on, you should know there's something wrong when you copy off Bowling For Soup. But there are still a few more songs though, so let's move on with it. "Real Thing", is the next song that we hear, and I have say again, how much originality that Boys Like Girls continues to lack on this album. It seems the band is stuck in the '80s as this song sounds like a single that Duran Duran would put out back in the day. The song has overproduction written all over it and I think that is something fans should have expected. But on the next song "Someone Like You", Boys Like Girls display their side of maturity.
Next we hear "Shot Heard Round the World", a song that is so boring and predictable. The song is a great example of how lazy a band can be and also how bad they can be critiqued by not testing their experimental side.
With more bad songs than good, I really don't think there is anything to sit back and smile at after this release. Boys Like Girls have jumped on the list of sell-out bands today such as All Time Low and Fall Out Boy that have overly produced albums with songs that will become ear candy for radio stations. On their first album they proved they had talent, but with the release of Love Drunk, they sound like a boy-band from the 90s. It is often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. If this is true, then Boys Like Girls have succeeded.
it appears Boys Like Girls have imitated the sound of many popular mainstream bands.
Shocker. What did you expect? And 'Love Drunk' really sounds nothing like 'Baba O'Riley'...especially since that's a keyboard at the beginning of 'Baba.' Dead on about the Bon Jovi and Killers rip-offs though. This album is total garbage...didn't really bother to listen to all of it.
Shocker. What did you expect? And 'Love Drunk' really sounds nothing like 'Baba O'Riley'...especially since that's a keyboard at the beginning of 'Baba.' Dead on about the Bon Jovi and Killers rip-offs though. This album is total garbage...didn't really bother to listen to all of it.
I never noticed that. It's pretty much impossible to deny that the chorus sounds exactly like Somebody Told Me.
Woah, a lot of hate in here for this band. I actually liked this album, not as much as the first one but I still thought it had some nice songs. When listening to BLG i'm not really expecting the most original, ground breaking music.
I wouldn't call it hate. Just a really strong dislike for this album. I hate that they released their Self-Titled and then waited 4 years to release their next album. When taking that long to release something, fans expect something half-way decent. Instead, they put out the most unoriginal album ever.
You obviously like doing reviews, which is good, but you should try to structure your paragraphs better. Three times in this review, you put a sentence as a paragraph... it looks half-assed and messy.
I never noticed that. It's pretty much impossible to deny that the chorus sounds exactly like Somebody Told Me.
I've said it a bunch, and I'll say it again. I don't think it's that similar.
That being said, I disagree with the review. I love the album... The first time or two or ten I was disappointed. This album has grown on me more than any album ever, I listen to it all the time now.
This album has some solid tracks -- "contagious" is insanely catchy. "Shot heard round the world" is probably the best on the album, and similar to their older stuff. "She's got a boyfriend now" and "chemicals collide" are pretty good as well. My only complaint is that they put too many slow songs on the album.
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