Boys Like Girls: Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls
Boys Like Girls
Red Ink
2006-08-22

It’s rare that an album will have me rolling my eyes within the first 15 or 20 seconds, but this self-titled record does just that. With a string of riffs, structures and lyrics that were seemingly found on the cutting room floor, Boys Like Girls are very glossy, even for a MySpace” find. “The Great Escape” sounds like a cross between Sum 41 on an off day and the Calling. But it’s the songs, songs that would make junior high school halls giddy with excitement, that make up this album. An album that would make Panic! at the Disco come off like Radiohead. When they put their heads down, songs like “On Top of the World” and “Five Minutes to Midnight” are adequate a la Jimmy Eat World. And they almost screw this one up. Other “emo” tunes here include the Taking Back Sunday-ish “Hero/Heroine” that screams for a Vans Warped Tour stage. But tired, stale and impotent efforts like “Thunder” make one want to run towards a lightning storm. Likewise for “Me, You and My Medication”. Some closing tracks are adequate, such as “Learning to Fall” and “Holiday”, but generally Boys Like Girls are another band you’ve heard before and unfortunately will hear again.

RATING 4 / 10