Album Review

Boys Like Girls – Love Drunk

• 7th Apr 2010

Remember Boys Like Girls, mainstream pop-rock heart-throbs who were all the rage in 2008? You’re bound to have played ‘The Great Escape’ on the DS version of Guitar Hero. Their eponymous first album was enthusiastically received by ‘alternative’ teens but was, in all honesty, a little bit bland and generic.

Their second album, then, comes as a pleasant surprise. There is a much wider range of identifiable influences – the verses to ‘Real Thing’ are reminsicent of classic 80s metal, while ballad ‘Two is Better Than One’ features teen sensation Taylor Swift, the girl who brought country music back to the charts;although a country element is more detectable in ‘Someone Like You,’ perfect for a slow-dance at the prom.

Boys Like Girls still manage to incorporate the perfectly crafted pop-rock their existing fanbase will be expecting – title track ‘Love Drunk’ is a particularly rapturous slice of pop, along with first track ‘Heart Heart Heartbreak’. So, there’s no fear of alienating anybody, but plenty of potential to attract new fans.

If you wrote off Boys Like Girls on the basis of their first album, they’ve earned a second chance – they best describe this album themselves with one of their track titles – it’s utterly ‘Contagious.’