The Friday Night Boys - Off The Deep End
Record Label: Fueled By Ramen
Release Date: June 9, 2009
Ever wondered what it would sound like if Something Corporate gave birth to a less intelligent baby with Forever The Sickest Kids? Here it is! The debut album from the Fueled By Ramen pop punk quartet, The Friday Night Boys.
Off The Deep End kicks off with the ultra catchy "Permanent Heartbreak," which pretty much sets you up for what to expect from the rest of the album. If you can't stand the first track, I recommend just stopping there. "Stupid Love Letter" takes a page from Something Corporate's songwriting book, and nearly ruins it with a bunch of electronic sounds. "Suicide Sunday" is pretty fun, but doesn't offer anything new to this genre.
"Finding Me Out" is pretty interesting due to the fact that they decided to have a ballad so early in the album. Although it's a little unexpected, this song actually works fairly well. The album then continues with lead single "Stuttering." While it may sound like they ripped off many other bands, it's still a very solid lead single which captures all the fun of summer perfectly. I also learned how to turn "stuttering" into a 4 syllable word! Following this is another ballad, "Can't Take That Away." This song is also slightly out-of-place, yet seems to work out pretty well.
Synth-driven "How I Met Your Mother" comes as a surprise and seems heavily-influenced by Forever the Sickest Kids. "Hollow" and "The First Time (Natalie's Song)" are both pretty fun and catchy, yet they don't stand out from the rest. "Molly Makeout" is a re-recording of an old favorite of mine, with more of a pop/rock sound instead of the acoustic sound of the original. While I still enjoy this version, I kind of miss the uniqueness of the original. This sounds like all the other songs on this album, while if they had kept the original acoustic sound, it would've really stood out. Oh well.
"Unforget You" is a painfully generic song that offers almost nothing that could be considered original. The closer, "Sorry I Stole Your Girl" is another re-recording of an old favorite, but this time they stayed more true to the original. It's kind of an odd way to end an album, yet somehow it just works.
Being a good addition to the Fueled By Ramen roster, The Friday Night Boys could do great things. As for now, we can only hope that they will find their own unique sound so they don't blend in to the background. So it goes, just another one of the hundreds of bands who have written a chapter in the book of pop-punk music, offering a pleasant, yet unoriginal listen. The moral of this story? Girls are evil and will break your heart.
I actually really really like this album. I had a review but I screwed something up and it didn't get submitted... It gave more praise obviously, so maybe I'll get that in eventually just for the contrast.
Browse Reviews
Write a Review
Alphabetized Listing
Popular Reviews
Best New Music
View Artist Profile
View News Articles
Stream the Music
Buy the Album or MP3s
View Blog
View Signature
Posts: 1,837
View Profile Picture
Share This Review
Print This Review
Subscribe to Review
More From This Author