Tim: I’ve no idea why, but this 2007 track has been getting a bit of airplay on Radio 1 recently; I can’t find any reference to a re-release or new marketing, but anyway, let’s have a listen because it’s good.
Tim: Yep. Good. As mentioned on Monday, I’m a bit of sucker for a rock track with a big drawn-out chorus hook, and this fits that nicely.
Tom: Ha. Now, you say that, but I don’t like this nearly as much as Monday’s track — which you didn’t think much of. I reckon the hook, and the verses, and both a bit dull. It’s generic pop-rock, and while there’s nothing wrong with it, there’s nothing really right with it either.
Tim: You think? Well, please yourself. We’ve mentioned this band before, back when they had a new track out last year, and if this is the start of a new push I do hope it succeeds. I doubt it is, if for no other reason than that the line-up’s changed since then, but anyway. Still worth a listen.
Tim: Now, this track doesn’t really belong on this blog, because they’re not remotely Europop, they’re not even European and in fact they haven’t really spawned any interest whatsoever outside of North America.
Tom: Hey, we did the Offspring last week. Roll with it.
Tim: Oh, I plan to – I heard their song Love Drunk when I lived in Canada and have been a bit of a fan ever since. This is their first new song in a while, accompanied by what I think is the most impressive lyric video we’ve seen yet.
Tom: Lyric videos, as an Official Thing, are only two years old – but my word, have they ever spread quickly. They’re a quick way to get a video onto YouTube without needing anything more than a one-or-two-person team. A pre-music-video video. No-one saw that coming.
Tim: Yes, it’s towards the cheesy end of pop punk…
Tom: Pop punk?!
Tim: That’s…quite an exclamation, given the limits of plain text.
Tom: If this is punk, then so is bloody Nickelback. These guys are rock. Maybe power pop. But there’s no way in hell they’re punk. The Vandals are pop punk. Green Day are pop punk. This lot? Not a chance.
Tim: Well, take your argument to Wikipedia. Anyway, if it wasn’t cheesy like it is then I probably wouldn’t like it as much – in fact, one of my favourite things about them is their habit of putting key changes in their songs, despite the fact that they’re Just Not Done in this type of music.*
* Theory of a Deadman (known vaguely in the UK for their 2008 song Hate My Life) are also quite good at this.
Tom: Someday, I’d like to hear a death metal band attempt a key change.
Tim: That’d be lovely. But here, part of me is annoyed, because if a song’s first line is about how you can’t tell a girl you love her, surely it has to end with you actually saying it, no? But still, it’s not like he’s leaving much doubt as to his feelings so it’s not so bad.
Tom: It did take me a few seconds to work out that the “four letter word” he’s referring to in the first line is “love”. I had other words in mind.
Tim: Overall, this is one reason for me to keep liking them, so I’m happy with it.
