CW pop! I realise I’m about to get shot here, but I happen to really like this tripe, Maroon Fivey and sugary/obnoxious as it is. Slick indie ballad pop with gobs of piano and violin, sweet longing lyrics, sweeping choruses, and a clear polished American Idol style single male vocalist who has a day job: as an actor on One Tree Hill. Reminds me by turns of Say Hi / Nicholas Megalis / Ben Folds / The Fray / Dashboard Confessional. Yes, you too can sum up all your teens-to-20s relationship troubles with music once confined to “Songs From Dawson’s Creek”. Oh, god bless bad television.

try: 6, 2, 4, 9
FCC: 8

1. mid-fast reacher. clear piano and violins. not unlike more dramatic jimmy eat world. a deep-of-night-driving track, but not super dark. “it feels bad now but it’s gonna get better someday”. ABRUPT END or play with next track.
*2. enormous “whoa”s. cool, funky minor-keyed a-bit-too-weird-for-mainstream stuff. synthy bass and overpowering vocals. kinda make believe-era weezer. an aggressive groover.
3. whistling, jack johnsony guitar, tinkly keys. poppy, boppy, sunshiny, girl vox “oh oh”s. about braving yr 20s: “you should go home before your money’s all gone.”
*4. rollicky quick-hit piano. upbeat, sunny “oh oh oh oh oh oh oh” chorus. i actually really like how the lyrics roll out in the chorus. very whiplashy / circular stuff.
5. slow, sappy effects-on keyboard crooner that uses the word “beautiful” about 20 times too often in the lyrics. chris martin cries in his car to this. please don’t humour him.
*6. ominous effects and deep synth. scattered, hard drums. minimal and effective. downtempo, aggressive, haunting.
7. easy keys. goes for a lazy sunday morning vibe, but just sounds bored. very controlled vocals. gets a little circus pompy towards the end.
8. FCC “fucked up” x2 I can’t believe the goddamn FCCs on this track, it’s my fave on the record. beepy synth, ramp-up violins, and ben folds piano, smooth/soaring layered instrumentation. a “relationship reparations” song. i had to put this on a tape the second i heard it. crap!
*9. rapid piano. all out dashboard / jimmy eat world. theatrical vocal runs, big violins, gushing sound. oh, the drama. “you saved my life once!” riding the same magnitude as track 8, but i don’t like it nearly as much.
10. please don’t play this. the lyrics are laughable. i couldn’t get through it.
11. deliberately ramshackle cabaret piano. veers very uncomfortably between standard pop balladry and a deleted scene from fiddler on the roof. i... what?