Boys Like Girls - Love Drunk

Much like the Cobra Starships and the 3OH!3s of the world, Boys Like Girls don't shy away from the massively accessible and commercially viable dance elements of rock music.

Much like the Cobra Starships and the 3OH!3s of the world, Boys Like Girls don't shy away from the massively accessible and commercially viable dance elements of rock music. While the aforementioned tend to build on a strong dance-influenced foundation, BLG tend to be a rock band with disco swagger and pop gloss. Lead-off single "Love Drunk" is great- like "The Great Escape" and "Hero/Heroine" from their 2006 self-titled album, it's a great hook, and a nutshell demonstration of their appeal. Songs like "Heart Heart Heartbreak" and "She's Got a Boyfriend Now" spit the same vibe, and aren't bad by definition, but it's what comes after that tends to be bland at best. Taylor Swift tags along in "Two Is Better Than One", a completely forgettable mid-tempo ballad Disney would have a tough time considering.

The rest of Love Drunk is of the same ilk. Nothing really reaches the same infectious pull as the title track and it lacks the pop pull of 2006's Boys Like Girls. But give it to them for being gloriously superficial. It's about as deep as a wading pool, and suffers because the album, by default, has to have more than a few songs ("Real Thing", bad electro and all, is absolutely atrocious), but at least it all looks pretty. BLG are a great iTunes band- just pick and choose what's worth it- otherwise, All-American Rejects do all of this much better.

(Columbia Records)