I’m trying to be objective about reviewing this one, because it’s clearly not aimed at the listening demographic that I fit into, so bear with me while I don the midriff-baring tank top and pink frilly knickers of a thirteen year old girl and try to get into the sulky mindset of a human being whose life revolves around immature boyfriends, rows with parents and dubious selfies. It’s not an easy persona to adapt to, I must say…
Plain White T’s, of course, had a number two UK smash hit a couple of years ago with ‘Hey There Delilah’. I didn’t much care for it, though admittedly it was tolerable enough for me not to take all that much notice. It piqued my interest though, this new release, as it is, apparently, the band’s first independent release in nearly fifteen years, and therefore the band could focus on what they really wanted to do.
Apparently what they wanted to do was sound like Maroon 5 or, God forbid, Train…
Somehow though, despite this, Plain White T’s always manage to err just on the right side of irritating. Perhaps it’s because the songs are short and snappy enough – nobody’s denying, after all, their talent for writing songs so catchy it’s like you have a family of thirsty leeches on your skin. Yet it’s when they return to their pop punk roots, such as the Sum 41 like ‘Never Working’, that they hit their high watermark. And even the most miserly old grump would have to admit that the sweetly affecting ‘You Belong’ is a terrific song, even if they hated the rest of the album.
Plus, it took me back to my childhood, because, on ‘Pause’, Tom Higgenson sings “I’m gonna push pause”, and, the first time I listened, I mistook that lyric for “I’ve got a Posh Paws“, which, as every Brit of a certain age knows, was the name of the toy dinosaur on ‘Swap Shop’ on Saturday mornings (Swap Shop backwards…well, nearly…), as well as – for me personally anyway – the nickname of a beloved moggy much later on. But I digress…
In short, I’ve spent so much time now in this thirteen year old girl’s knickers that even Jimmy Saville would have been green with envy, but although they’re really starting to chafe now. I doubt if I’ll don them all that often, the truth is a little bit of cross dressing every now and again never did anyone any harm…
Answers on a postcard to God is in The TV if anyone has the remotest clue what the fuck I am talking about? I’m so confused now that I’ve even given this album a decent score…
[Rating:3]
