| Product: |
Every Second Counts - Plain White T's |
| Date: |
09/09/07 (330 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Not a single bad track!
Disadvantages: None!
Plain White T’s were not a band I was familiar with in the slightest, in fact I don’t think I’d even heard their name until about a month ago. They’re an American band consisting of five male members and class themselves as an indie / rock band. Every Second Counts is actually their fourth album )third full length album) although their former albums didn’t receive nearly as much success as their latest offering. They’re most similar to American bands such as Boys Like Girls and Dashboard Confessional. They do also have similar sounding songs to more well known bands such as All American Rejects and Snow Patrol. I’d say that they’d mainly appeal to quite a young audience although my mum has taken quite a liking to them!
“Hey There Delilah” is the first track on the album and one that has really got them a firm footing in the music world. It reached number 1 on the American billboard chart when it was re-released back in July 2007. It’s a lovely, soothing ballad that is sung with such emotion and heartfelt honesty that it sold the album to me straight away. It’s sung softly with gently strumming guitar chords in the background, much more of a soft, soothing pop song that anything from the indie or rock field. The track itself is a love song in a sense, the track is a ballad sung to a girlfriend who has gone away to study and it’s a track wrote to let her know he’s missing her and to give her hope that they will get through this hard time, “Hey there Delilah I know times are getting hard but just believe me girl some day I’ll pay the bills with this guitar, we’ll have it good, we’ll have the life we knew we would.”
“Our Time Now” is a much more upbeat, pop / rock track that sounds quite similar to something by All American Rejects or Fall Out Boy. It really does get your foot tapping along to the beat and the chorus has an energetic crescendo which really makes this track stand out. It’s quite a contrast to the previous track but I think that these two were certainly the best opening choices as it gives you a clear picture as to what the rest of the album will be like, from one extreme to another. If you’ve got doubts about getting this album try to listen to this track and the previous one as they manage to sum up the band completely. It’s great for listening to when you’re in an upbeat mood, “There will be no rules tonight, if there were we’d break them, nothing’s going to stop us now, let’s get down to it.”
“Come Back to Me” is more mellow that the previous track but a little more upbeat than the first track which creates a sort of middle ground between the two. It’s quite clearly a love song but it’s not your typical slow ballad which is always refreshing I think. There’s much more of a beat to it than most old fashioned love songs especially as it’s not nearly as slow and the chorus does have a soft punk / rock feel to it which makes it stand out. It does have quite emotive lyrics and the feeling behind the song is quite raw, it’s about being left alone and how you wish it had never happened, “I can’t stand to watch you go, cos in my head deep down I know, I don’t want to live with you, I love the way we stay up late, the way you laugh at your mistakes, I love everything about you.” This contrasts with, “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)” which is firmly within the punk / rock field with the harshly sung lyrics. Again there’s a strong feeling of other young American punk / rock bands here and it wouldn’t be out of place on a Fall Out Boy album just to give you a hint of what you’re getting here. It’s a great track to listen to after a break up, “You were everything I wanted, you were everything a girl could be, then you left me broken hearted, now you don’t mean a thing to me, all I wanted was your love love love.”
“You and Me” is the shortest track on the album at just over two minutes long but it’s a really catchy, slightly irritating melodic number that has a really upbeat feel to it. The verse is quite quick and jumpy which really does catch your attention. The song itself is a light hearted number about why two people fit together so well, “You and me we couldn’t stand being normal, that’s why we make a good you and me, we both laugh at the most random situations, that’s the key baby don’t you agree.” If I’m honest it does get a little irritating due to the repeated “you and me” part throughout the track! “Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk” is one of my favourite tracks on the album and one I can really identify with from the lyrics. It maintains the fairly upbeat feel with a light rock essence to it from the backing music. I really like this track and always find myself humming it during the day! It’s about how sometimes within a friendship / relationship one person somewhat uses the other person as in when they’ve got nothing else to do they’ll call their friend / partner, “In case you haven’t heard I’m all alone, while you’re out on the town drinking with your friends, you can say all these beautiful things but they don’t mean nothing, no they don’t mean a thing.”
“Making a Memory” is more of a soothing ballad number which echoes some of the melodies from the first track. When I first heard it I did instantly think of one of Bon Jovi’s quite strong love ballads with the impacting chorus and the softly sung verses which is exactly what this song captures. However in contrast to Bon Jovi this has a much younger feel to it and one that is somehow easier to listen to. It’s about how when you argue and then someone leaves you almost instantly regret it and wish they hadn’t left, “You and me we should be making a memory, whenever we’re together, look at me can’t you see, we were meant to be, making a memory.” This is quite different to the next track, “So Damn Clever” which has brilliant backing music from electric guitars that somehow give the track quite a pessimistic feel to it. This definitely has quite a rock / punk feel to it but they manage to pull it off in a way that’s not off putting in the slightest as I’m not a particular fan of that genre. The song itself is quite negative about the end of a relationship, the singer has obviously come off worse and been hurt, “We were over from the start, intertwined just in time to fall apart, I can’t believe I missed the signs, you were cold and they all told me not to try.”
“Tearin’ Us Apart” has a punk feel to the opening of it and did remind me very slightly of something from a Blur album although this isn’t at all representative of the album. It’s still quite an buoyant and cheery track despite it ending with the break up a relationship. The track is about how you can do little things beyond your control that are slowly breaking up your relationship, “I just got off the phone with you, like any other night, I know that I said I loved you too, but she was on my mind.” The next track “Write You a Song” is a beautiful and simple love ballad about how he is too poor to show his love with money so instead he’s wrote a song for his lover. It’s really soothing with minimal backing music and so beautifully harmonious that it makes for superb listening, “I will write you a song, that’s how you’ll know that my love is still strong, I will write you a song, and you’ll know from the song that I just can’t go on with you.”
“Gimme a Chance” is the tenth song on the album and has quite a pop / punk feel to it. By this point I’m running out of things to say as it is quite similar to a lot of the other tracks on the album with quite calming verses with a slight beat keeping up the base, and the crescendo to the slightly punk sounding chorus, “If I’m not everything you wanted, if I’m not everything you need, then you can walk right out, and you can walk right out, but you’re never going to see just how good it’s going to be, until you give me a chance.” The penultimate song on the album, “Figure It Out” which has quite an All American Rejects / Fall Out Boy sound to it and certainly lifts your spirits when you listen to it. It’s a song about being confused in a relationship, “She says I don’t take her seriously, I don’t so I guess I’d have to agree, I didn’t mean that, I really mean that.” The final track on the album is “Let Me Take You There” which would really have fitted in on the latest Snow Patrol album as it’s got that same kind of hollow, soothing feel to it with really soft backing music. The lyrics sound like they’re honestly sung yet possess great depth in a sense, “I know a place that we can go to, a place where no one knows you, they won’t know who we are.”
So are Plain White T’s just another American band that are suited to the teenage genre and the movie soundtracks? I’d have to argue that no they’re not, although some of their sounds are similar to other bands no other band out there has actually produced an album with quite as much depth and variety as this one. There’s no denying that they are using a main formula of power chords and soothing harmonies but this only guarantees that you’ll be singing along in no time. The only downside to this album is that it is quite heavily based on relationships, from what I can gather they got on really well, then she screwed him over, then he screwed her over, etc. If that’s not really your scene then you won’t really like this album purely based on the lyrics alone. However if you can look past that, or even identify with it then this album will be a sure favourite!
I personally absolutely love this album, it’s the only thing I’ve been listening to in my car for the past two weeks and I’ve got it firmly loaded onto my ipod as well. They’ve just brought out a new release as well so I’m desperately trying to get my hands on that to see if it’s as good as this masterpiece. So if you’re fancying a bit of a change then maybe give this album a listen!
Thanks for reading.
Summary: The third full album release from American band Plain White T's.
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