Contrary to what they sound like, PWT’s are not actually another pre-pubescent overnight success story. The band formed a decade ago in Illinois, originating as a high school hobby. Numerous American tour dates later, aided by various stints on the Warped tour, the Chicago-based quintet release their third official album. Due to its omnipresence on the airwaves, anyone possessing eardrums has been humming along to the inoffensive ‘Hey There Delilah’ for a few weeks now. Undeniably sweet and almost managing to conceal its stalkerish tendencies, what more could one ask for in a single? James Blunt take note.
Sadly, the rest of the album proves rather less successful. Granted, certain guitar riffs generate a few toe-tapping Blink 182-esque moments in ‘So Damn Clever’ and ‘Figure It Out.’ However, not much else can be said for the remainder. ‘Let Me Take You There’ sounds uncannily like a four-year-old’s interpretation of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. Tom Higgenson (who once waxed lyrical regarding mainstream music’s tendency to be “saturated with bullshit”) seems to spend his days perpetually picking petals from daisies, such is the extent of his ‘She loves me, she loves me not’ songwriting mentality. The lyrics are painfully hackneyed and irritating at worst, generic and juvenile at best. ‘You And Me’ features the lines, “We like the same kind of music/That’s why we make a good you and me/We got style, baby we know how to use it.” Sporadic bursts of style, perhaps. Any discernible substance? No. Think a post sex-change Avril Lavigne (go on, you can do it!) and you’re more than halfway there.