Boys Like Girls – Boys Like Girls
Release Date: August 22, 2006
Record Label: Red Ink/Columbia Records
[Overall Score: 6.5/10]
Do you like generally upbeat, overwrought pop songs guaranteed to make you either tap your foot in agreement or cringe at their vapidity? If so, you’ll love the highly refined yet still cookie cutter sound of Boys Like Girls’ self-titled debut record. With the sheen of a major label behind them, Boys Like Girls have written a record whose catchiness is surpassed only by its complete lack of substance. There are times where it works, amazingly enough.
The first five songs are the strongest on the CD, and as a result will get the most plays over the long term. Up until the infectious ballad “Thunder,” Boys Like Girls is a promising pop-rock album. Once it passes “Thunder,” the album meanders through a collection of minor hits and major misses that compose the remaining seven songs. Making “Dance Hall Drug,” one of the weakest songs on the album (next to “Learning to Fall”), a possible single may backfire. It is bouncy and upbeat but the lyrics fall well short of memorable. In fact, this is a perfect example of the cookie cutter sound that Boys Like Girls have. Once you wake up from this bore, you will get to hear the Eve 6-esque “Learning to Fall.” A dead ringer for any generic late 90’s alternative radio hit, complete with the predictable breathless intro and the mindless chorus that will stick in your head for days, this song will probably polarize listeners. Some will enjoy it for the radio-ready potential that it entertains, but others will point out the emptiness of the song once it stops, namely the clichéd “this is the worst day of my life” woe-is-me bullshit that seems to find its way into so many albums lately. Frankly, I’m tired of it; bands should sack up and write a ballad or any slow song that your typical angsty teen cannot churn out on a bad day. A chugging riff highlights “Up Against the Wall,” but it is yet another (pleasant yet) predictable pop song.
Many of you will probably enjoy Boys Like Girls to some extent. Inherently, most music fans in this scene enjoy a few bands like this; I know I do. They lack originality, but their songs are loud and bold, and most of all, infectious. The CD is well produced (by Matt Squire), and the instruments are a key focus of the record. Disappointingly, many of the chances that the band had to mix it up and experiment musically went by the wayside in favor of straightforward pop. If you enjoyed any of the releases from The City Drive, Liam and Me, The Summer Obsession, and October Fall this year, Boys Like Girls is probably worth the purchase. Otherwise, I suggest you give them a listen beforehand because the staying power is a bit weak unless they catch hold with you and simply don’t let go. For a major label-supported band, you could do much worse than Boys Like Girls, but given the frequency of pop and pop-punk releases over the past few years, you could also do a lot better.
6.5? No way. This is one of the best pop-rock cd's I've heard in a long time & I've been listening to it non stop. They're a pop band & they do it extremely well. Your argument is basically that it's not good because they don't go out of the way to create something different when they don't need to.
The mindlessness imo, is what makes this album so great. It's predictable as hell, but I have yet to hear a better summer album than this so far this year. Sometimes it's good to just lay back and enjoy pop for what it's worth and not try to dig deep and find some kind of meaning in it.
Very well-written review in my opinion. But I like gratuitous pop music I can just nod my head to in the car, so it's probably right up my alley.
As I said in the review. If you like that type of music, this will appeal to you. Period. My review shouldn't change your mind; go buy it. If you want more from your music, BLG isn't the way to go without listening first to see if you'd like it.
i like happy poppy music, but i can understand where you're coming from with this review. none of the music or lyrics are anything that is going to stick, but it's definitely fun for me.
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