Review: Love, She Wrote "Oh! And About Last Night" [EP]

The "Oh! And About Last Night" EP from Fort Lauderdale's new emo pop sons, Love, She Wrote, has arrived. The bling on the cover makes this look like a rap record, but as Aerosmith once said, never judge a book by its cover. The packaging surrounding this band screams "We are ready for the big time!" - just look at their slick CD artwork, their tattoos and piercings, their glitzy MySpace page, how they only use the initial of their sir names - these boys look like they are ready to make an indelible mark on the rock world. Well, again, don't judge a book by its cover...

Don't get me wrong...Love, She Wrote has released a very respectable EP. The band is tight, full of energy, the songs are catchy, and the singer is capable of melodically whining about girls just as well as the leaders in this genre. The problem with "Oh! And About Last Night" is that it is no earth shattering achievement. They deliver exactly what fans of emo pop want to hear - if that was their only goal, mission accomplished. But if they were looking for cross-over success, there is little on this EP that is going to make them stand out from the crowd of identical bands trying to jump on this bandwagon as it begins to derail from being overloaded.

The youthful intensity in the music is a blast, but what the band should work on is some musical discipline. What I mean is that their songs would benefit from some fresh dynamics once in awhile - a little acoustic guitar here, maybe a crescendo there, a different pace during the break - anything to break up an EP of 5 songs that almost comes across as a single long song. The lyrics are also unsophisticated, even for a young band. Despite these critiques, tracks like "That Girl is Fierce" and "December Nights" are delightfully simple but undeniably catchy ear candy.

So if you haven't yet had your fill of generic emo pop, Love, She Wrote would make a fine addition to your collection. For fans of Echo Screen, Yellowcard, Good Charlotte, and the like.

iPOD-worthy: 1, 2, 4

Love, She Wrote on MySpace.