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All That We Needed

Plain White T's
Fearless Records

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Plain White T's - All That We Needed This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang. Not with the proverbial nuclear error Armageddon of “London Calling.” Not even in the much less cinematic throes of Malthusian over-population issues. It ends with junior-high punk and slick pretty-boy harmonies.

On Judgment Day, expect to see Plain White T’s All That We Needed riding a dark horse across the sky, spreading pestilence behind it. Yes, the T’s have reached a startlingly new low in punk-esque songwriting.

With their eyes on the prize (that prize, for anyone still reading, is the heart of middle-school girls with a couple Hot Topic gift cards), Plain White T’s attempt to squash the last shreds of pop punk’s dignity. About as threatening as straight-to-video Mary Kate and Ashley videos, All That We Needed just may be the most banal album ever passed off as pop-punk or power pop. With an apparently inexhaustible supply of mall-punk riffs that make Sum 41 sound like anarcho-revolutionaries, Plain White T’s want nothing more than to be in the next issue of Bop: Singer Tom Higgenston croons with all the polish of a teen pop album, going through endless permutations of generic, gutless breakup situations that play him off as a trod-upon Mr. Sensitive. The rest of the band, despite a few hard-edged guitars, sound as if it’d be more comfortable playing behind Ashlee Simpson than rockin’ a basement party.

Virtually every note on All That We Needed is as limp and lifeless as it gets. “Take Me Away” puts Higgenston’s crooned complaints over a chunk of punk-lite that’s about as gritty and real as Avril Lavigne. On “What More do You Want,” Higgenston loses his last splinter of backbone and turns to outright pleading, while the band augments its sound with a Weston-esque synth – about four years after we got tired of that. “Sing My Best” puts Higgenston’s vocals squarely at the top of the mix, drowning out all shadows of a rock heritage for a shot at Top 40 pop, while “My Only One” – perhaps the album’s strongest track – is little more than a gooey gob of unformed vocal and guitar melodies. Where Plain White T’s really shows its true colors, however, is in the acousta-emo closer, “Hey There Delilah,” a Dashboard Confessional rip-off so cheesy it’s embarrassing to hear it.

If this is the best pop punk has to offer (and thank everything that’s decent, it isn’t), then we’ve reached a new low. Puerile and adolescent, All That We Needed is pop-punk in its tamest, lamest form.

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(4 comments)

Rating:
So true. Hey There Delilah is a shocker. Possibly the most annoying song of 2007. I can't stand that guy's singing!
posted by peter on Oct 11, 2007

Rating: not rated
lol! Yeah That same link that the person before me put! Dang lol.
posted by on Nov 14, 2005

Rating: not rated
Plain white t's is awesome and you don't know what the fuck you are talking about you obviously can;t hear because if you cold you would know what i am talikng about stupid ass.
posted by n/a on Apr 09, 2005

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All That We Needed

Plain White T's Fearless Records

Plain White T's
Fearless Records