Boys Night Out – Self-Titled

Artist:Boys Night Out
Record: Self-Titled
Label: Ferret Records
Purchase: SmartPunk
Release Date: June 26, 2007

Overall: 8.5
Music: 8.5
Lyrics: 8.0
Production: 9.0

Your headphones are snug over your ears as the record starts. From the first line you hear (“Get your head straight, before it’s too late”), you start to realize this record is going to be more honest than your grandmother’s confessional last Sunday. The guitar riffs are unique and not the typical repetitive norm that you hear over and over again. The chorus hits and it’s the catchiest thing you’ve heard since Hanson’s “Mmmbop”. Your spirit is lifted and before the second track begins, you are already humming the chorus from the first track. You remove your headphones and get on with your life, yet still hearing the record being played thanks to your short-term memory database.

Boys Night Out released their self-titled full length on June 26th, 2007 to a boring, typical, blah audience. Fans are now content with mediocre bands that have dollar bills in their eyes and cheat sheets for a sure No. 1 hit. Bands are continually copying each other, whether it’s a distinctive sound or the lyrical content or the way the chorus plunges in the middle of a song. Vocalist Jeff Davis states, “That’s all we ever try to do when making music. We always write for us.” Hats tipped off in an 1800’s fashion. Finally there is a band that is writing music not because the scene demands it or the record labels markets it a sure moneymaker.

Every song on this self-titled record is just as catchy as the previous one. You find yourself listening to one song and humming the chorus, but the next song rolls around and you have a new chorus to start humming. It’s not a matter of catchy choruses sounding the same; each song has its own unique sound and upbeat tempo. The lyrics are honest and easy enough to understand, but vague enough to take your own meaning away.

There are a million of things to think about when you give up getting high. There are so many mistakes in your life that they keep your company. Regardless of the topic, there is a song for every listener on this Boys Night Out self-titled album. There is even a 21st century drinking song that repeats, in an Irish pub chant sort-of-way, “Tonight, to hell with everything else. We’ll drink hard. We’ll drink, we’ll drink to ourselves.” Well, to hell with every blah rock band, we’ll find ourselves listening to this record repetitively.

Track Listing
1. Get Your Head Straight
2. Swift and Unforgiving
3. The Push and Pull
4. Up With Me
5. The Heirs of Error
6. Let Me Be Your Swear Word
7. Hey, Thanks
8. Fall for the Drinker
9. Apartment
10. Reason Ain’t Our Long Suit
11. It Won’t Be Long