"Hey there Delilah
What's it like in New York City?
I'm a thousand miles away
But girl, tonight you look so pretty
Yes you do
Times Square can't shine as bright as you
I swear it's true"
Hey There Delilah was the Plain White T's first number 1 hit in the United States. It was actually featured on their 2005 effort "All That We Needed," but was re-released on this album with a string section added to the original recording. Time magazine named
Hey There Delilah the seventh best song of 2007,and it has been covered by various artists, from The Vitamin String Quartet to Kidz Bop. Those infamous lyrics will ring in my head for a while to come.
But what about the rest of the album? Well, it's essentially generic pop-punk with an assortment of good riffs buried deep within its depths. First single
Hate (I Really Don't Like You) has an exceedingly catchy main riff and vocal line which manage to overshadow the poor lyrics and make it one of the best tracks on the album. The beginning of
Come Back To Me is almost
Jimmy Eat World-esque, with its hypnotic, mellow atmosphere during the verses and tasteful use of falsetto vocals. Also, penultimate track
Figure It Out features a boisterous main riff, catchy choruses, and a surprisingly decent guitar solo.
Sadly, there are several songs on here that fail to live up to the rest.
Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk and
Gimme A Chance are both completely unnoteworthy, while
Write You A Song feels like an attempt at Hey There Delilah 2.0, and needless to say it fails miserably. Track six
Making A Memory would also be totally uninteresting were it not for the subtle, but skillful use of strings during the choruses, and
So Damn Clever is arguably the most generic song of the album, with its typical structure and indistinctive lyrics.
The Plain White T's "Every Second Counts" is a surprisingly decent release. It may be a fairly run-of-the-mill pop-punk album at its core, but some of the catchy guitar riffs, vocal lines, and choruses save it from failure.
Simple though it may be, it is still an adequate pop-punk album.
"Hey there Delilah
I've got so much left to say
If every simple song I wrote to you
Would take your breath away
I'd write it all"
