Pete Wentz and Tyson Ritter continue to sleep soundly.
Plain White T's - Every Second Counts Alternative Press - Tim Karan on 2/28/07 @ 3:50 PM - altpress.com
[3/5] Chicago power-pop quintet Plain White T's have been garnering some much-deserved acclaim, thanks to the breakout success of "Hey There Delilah," one of the highlights of the band's hook-laden 2005 platter,
All That We Needed. The momentum prompted Hollywood Records to snap up the band, and their new record,
Every Second Counts, aims for the kind of radio-friendly household-name attention enjoyed by folks like the All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy. Although frontman Tom Higgenson's plaintive tales of bitter heartbreak and relationship woe fit perfectly within the band's breathless, catchy, heavily indebted to Jimmy Eat World-styled guitar-pop, there's nothing on this new outing that's of the same caliber as "Delilah," or "All That We Needed." And aside from sounding somewhat derivative, part of the problem is Higgenson being just too literal and frank, like in "Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk," when, after being sexually jilted, he proclaims, "You just leave me there, to take care of myself." Sorry, Tom: that's simply TMI. Obviously, with a little more consistency and a healthy dose of subtlety, the T's can still go on to conquer the airwaves-whenever they do finally put it all together.
(HOLLYWOOD) Brendan Manley
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