Released: Dec 11, 2012
Genre: Pop Rock, Power Pop
Label: Columbia
Number Of Tracks: 11
Former pop-rockers become full-on popstars as Boys Like Girls go boyband on "Crazy World".
Crazy WorldFeatured review by: UG Team, on december 21, 2012 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Sound: There was a time, not so long ago, when Boys Like Girls played guitars. They wrote big sugary hits but clung onto the 'powerpop' pretence for dear life and stuck some crunch behind it. It seemed to be going well for them, but they must be really tired of being on the end of the sentence that starts 'My favourite band's All Time Low, but I also like...' because with "Crazy World" they've struck out as a proper, bona fide boyband, necklaces and all.
It's an interesting move. They've dropped the tempos and cut the distortion but you can see the potential for a homogenous hit machine in these guys. They're good-looking, reliable for an earworm and main man Martin Johnson – who's worked on hits for a number of other stars – wrote the whole thing. His songs are irritatingly effective; whatever the pretence tracks like "Life Of The Party" and "Crazy World" are silky sweet enough to be hummed at idle moments. Even the really half-baked stuff like "Leaving California", which is rent-a-ballad down to the last piano twinkle, has a little something to the tune. The issue is that without the illusion of being 'pop-punkers', the band and their music are highly likely to drop to the middle of the pack against established pop giants and fade into obscurity. // 4
Impression: Bland, inoffensive and unbearably shiny; this is a boyband album for a boyband audience, but there was another direction for Boys Like Girls. Compare and contrast with the last Fall Out Boy album before their hiatus – smart, infectious pop which integrated the guitar band when needed and pushed it back when not. This is dumb, infectious pop which isn't worth getting stuck in your head. Ignoring the wider world and speaking only to UG readers: don't waste your time because you won't like this.
Same with Mcfly. their new album is all boybandish.. they even have a music video where you see them standing with their guitars, but then you only hear a guitar for about 2% of the song...
hahaha i've known the new bassist for this band for about 7 or 8 years. The kid is a GIGANTIC D-bag. I feel bad for his other bandmates because they're all good and talented dudes, but he's just awful.
And he replaced one of my favorite musicians. Their old bassist was really one of the best parts of the band - he's a better singer than their lead singer and given how their songwriting went from alright to horrible the moment he left, I think he was writing or editing a lot of their stuff. His new band, Early Morning Blues, is excellent.
I don't like when people toss the phrase "sellout" around like there's no tomorrow, but with these guys, how can you explain morphing from ATL-lite to Rascal Flatts?
I don't like this album, but this review is downright insulting to journalism, that is supposed to be neutral. Since the band clearly chose to move into an poplike style, the album should be reviewed according to the standards for that genre, not by standards of genres that are the most liked on this site.
who writes these reviews? I mean I know the journalism on this site is shoddy at best, but the reasoning behind the ratings is just god awful. For example: "All that needs to be said is that "Crazy World" is, almost without exception, about relationships and their associated clichés, and as such probably won't be of too much interest to the UG clientele." One might see just a hint of bias in this sentence.
UG, if you want to be seen as a legitimate media outlet, for the love of God fire your review staff.
