Boys Like Girls are good...WHAT!!??

Some quick reviews that got overshadowed by the awesomeness of the Foo Fighters leak last week:

-Going against the advice of Luis from Pretty Much Amazing, I went ahead and picked up the leak of James Blunt's All The Lost Souls. Luis, if you happen to be reading this, you were right. With a few marginal exceptions, its a snooze. If I want to hear a song like "1973", I'll stick with music that came out in 1973.
Ruling on the Field: 3/10
Highlight Reel:...Sad to say there really isn't one. If you really want a taste, I'll give you 1973.

-I've only barely gotten through all of Graduation, but it's definitely something that's gonna get a few more rounds on my iPod before it wears out. This is the only Kanye album I've heard in its entirety, so I don't really have a point of reference, but suffice it to say I'm impressed. Kanye's brand of rap is way more accessible than most of the rest of what the genre is offering up (with the exception of maybe Timbaland).
Ruling on the Field: 7/10
Highlight Reel: Stronger, Can't Tell Me Nothing

-I ruckused the self-titled debut from Boys Like Girls, primarily on the strength of this live version of "The Great Escape" I picked up from iTunes (the link is to the video of the AOL Session. The audio of the same performance is also on iTunes). "The Great Escape" is definitely one of the highlights of the album, but its matched by tracks like "Thunder" and "Five Minutes to Midnight". I don't know if there is a truly good way to do pop-punk, but Boys Like Girls put up something really fun.
Ruling on the Field: 8/10
No Highlight Reel for this because I ruckused it, but I'll try to get an mp3 of that live track up later in the week.

I think that's it for now. Back later with some other goodies.

==TJ==