Doesn’t Count as Much
Congratulations, Plain White T’s! The award for this year’s hopeless romantic album goes to your latest CD, Every Second Counts. Always the victim of love, each song would be perfect as background music for a ‘lonely without you’ montage on The OC.Paling in comparison to earlier releases such as 2002’s Stop, it is hard to believe that this is Plain White T’s first major label record. Every Second Counts jumps from upbeat to ballad too often and would greatly benefit from reordering the track listing. The single “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)” is a boppy song perfect for the middle and high school set, even more so that the lyrics sound like they were taken from an 8th grader’s Livejournal (“All I wanted was your love, love, love love love love/ Hate is a strong word, but I really, really, really don’t like you”).
While lyrics aren’t exactly their strength, Tom Higgenson and the T’s can be too fun at times to notice. “You and Me,” for instance, is a cute little ditty that will make you want to share a milkshake with your crush, then skip hand in hand through a field. As for the slower songs, there are too many attempts (“Let Me Take You There” being the best) at the next “Hey There Delilah,” the acoustic hit that first put PWT on the music map.
Every Second Counts contains a few good songs reminiscent of their old style, but the new marketable pop sound has turned the Plain White T’s into a boy band with instruments. Fingers are crossed in hopes that they can return to their former indie record glory.
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