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Plain White T's are a quintet from the suburbs of Chicago,
Illinois whose third studio album Hey There Delilah, produced
by Sean O'Keefe (Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights,
Motion City Soundtrack), makes the most of their brand of garage-rock/power
pop chords. Balancing balustrades of punk, pop and melodic rock contours,
Plain White T's songs have a club rock grumble with emo-style lyrics
stilt with a Panic! At The Disco and Simple Plan edifice
and simpering with a Taking Back Sunday and Hot Hot Heat
infectious party beat. Plain White T's combo of crisp drum pellets
and synchronized double powered guitar rumbles keep the tracks active
and spirited while undercoating the propelled vocal lifts.
The album opens with the ballady, acoustic number "Hey There
Delilah," made with dainty seams loosely fortified by bare
vocals trembling on the brink of collapsing into the sea of sparse
guitar surfs. The title track is the only ballad on the album but
it flexes Plain White T's musicality into venturing with classic
acoustic frames holding an authentic grasp on the music form.
Proceeding the title track is a line of party rock tunes like "Easy
Way Out" and "Down The Road" whose designs attract
pop/rock enthusiasts as they pound with crunching drum work and bracing
vocals. The songs "Losing Myself" and "If I Told You"
keep in line with the power party rock stratum with a fun and furious
momentum protracting slings like The Academy Is, All American
Rejects, and Big City Rock.
The music relates to club rock tempos with bolting rhythm sections
and drilling guitar twisters locking in the vocal moxies while the
lyrics pierce through emotions like in "If I Told You":
"If I told you I loved you/ Would it move you enough/ To even
act as if you've heard?/ If I said I was leavin'/ Would you still
find a reason/ To ignore my every word?/ 'Cause I'm the one who waits
here for you/ I'm the who'll always adore you/ I'm the one who is
dying for your cause"
The album is topped by a live version of "Hey There Delilah"
which offers thicker instrumentation than the studio version and a
chunkier vocal delivery. The disc is also an enhanced CD providing
music videos for "Hey There Delilah," "Take Me Away,"
and "All That We Needed." First up, "Hey There Delilah"
is a narrative of the song done in black and white film. "Take
Me Away" is a party scene with scantily-clad women prancing around
the band and mirroring the lyrics. One of the band members is donning
a Def Leppard t-shirt reminiscent of the nostalgic 80's power
pop/party rock band who made melodic guitar rock a commercial success,
but Plain White T's contemporary mix stakes a refreshing bend on lovelorn
tales and adrenaline-fumed desires. "All That We Needed' furnishes
excellent live footage of the band playing their energy-pumped tune.
Plain White T's entered the music scene with their debut album Stop
in 2002. Their sophomore release All That We Needed in
2005 put them on the Take Action Tour with Sugarcult, Hawthorne
Heights, and Head Automatica and made for their third studio
endeavor Hey There Delilah. Band mates Tom Higgenson
- vocals, Dave Tirio - Gibson guitars, Tim Lopez - Fender/Telecaster
guitars, Mike Retondo - Fender bass guitar, and De'Mar Hamilton
- Gravity drums, make party rock tunes with a tight fit, transitional
edges, and a lively pulse.
Plain White T's will be playing 4 weeks on the Vans Warped Tour
this summer bringing in their club rock grooves lubricated by punk
rock voltage and swigs of emo-slaver.
-Susan Frances
Track Listing:
1) Hey There Delilah
2) Easy Way Out
3) Down The Road
4) Losing Myself
5) If I Told You
6) Hey There Delilah (live version)
Music Video Listing:
1) Take Me Away
2) Hey There Delilah
3) All That We Needed
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