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LIFE & ARTS

'Boys' won't win any girls with boring debut 

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

Boys Like Girls is perfect at fitting every stereotypical mold for a pop-rock band. It does it so well it's just plain boring. 

The band did exactly what it was supposed to do in its self-titled debut, but not much else.

Every strum by lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni is on key, and drummer John Keefe and bassist Bryan Danahue do a great job staying on the same page while Martin Johnson does his thing with the microphone. 

There's just one problem: It's been done before. If you've ever listened to Reliant K or the Click 5, then you've already heard Boys Like Girls. 

And those are just two examples. It would take about a day to name all the bands these guys sound like.

If you're into innovate artists who push the envelope, showcasing their talents at the highest level, Boys Like Girls is probably not the way to go. 

There are no cool guitar or drum solos here to highlight the exceptional abilities of the musicians. The lyrics won't blow your mind and neither will the vocals, but that doesn't mean the album is a total waste of time. In fact, Boys Like Girls is chock full of tAracks that are excellent at being mediocre. 

The band sets the mood with "The Great Escape," one of the more up-tempo tracks on the album. Perhaps the members wanted to go with something that most teenagers could relate to -- dropping everything to escape with that special someone. 

"Paper bags and plastic hearts / All our belongings in shopping carts / Throw it away, forget yesterday / We'll make the great escape," Johnson sings.

The song has a punk feel to it, and Johnson does a decent job of selling it with his voice, alternating between his softer mid-range and his upper-range vocals in the chorus and the bridge.

Despite lacking in lyrical creativity, the song, like many other tracks on Boys Like Girls, is put together nicely -- which is probably the only silver lining in this project. 

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