I have never understood why people enjoy Never Shout Never. This scrawny red-head from out of no where, it seems, grabbed a guitar, took out his journal, and started singing. The worst part is, people actually like it. NSN has fans, primarily annoying teen girls. These girls annoy me, thus Never Shout Never annoys me. So, why was I drawn to write a review about Never Shout Never's new album?

I mean, I have to give Christofer Drew credit; he wears his heart on his plaid covered sleeve, bleeding and beating. It's hard in the music industry to let your feelings out to the public, but the thing that IRRITATES me about NSN lyrics is how redundant and cliche they are. It is all about the ray of sunshine pissing on all the homemade sweaters of the world, where love is never enough. So, what did I expect when I listened to this new "less-than-21-minute" LP What Is Love? Actually, nothing. I expected this album to be just like every other Never Shout Never song: "stupid". I don't usually expect much from red-haired & tattoo'd harry potter looking 18 year olds who seem too excited about life.

Needless to say, every song on this album feels like the same happy-go-lucky song. Three songs stood out from the eight tracks on this LP. All three songs are at the end of the album and next to each other. The song "I Love You 5" seems to be one of those songs you see in a Target commercial. It's poppy, catchy, and honest. Go Figure. I really like the chorus-- the only thing that seems to make sense here. "Love you one, a two, a three shoobee-doo / I love you four, that's more than I can afford / And I can tell, some day that I'm gunna' say the truth" Well, Christofer Drew, let's hope you're always telling the truth.

The other two songs that are worth mentioning are "California" and the album's name-sake, "What is Love?". "California" is one of those nostalgic summer car ride songs that everyone had to agree on. Oh wait! I can see it now: THOUSANDS of girls in a NSN concert hall clapping on and off beat saying "la la la la la" in three different keys, dancing around as Christofer conducts the crowd. Ah, perfection. Towards the end of the song, there's a melody of some 50s song I can't put my finger on because I'm stuck listening to NSN, and I can't think straight. Honestly, I think there may or may not be subliminal messaging here induced with cocaine so we just keep coming back for another fix. Great.

The last enjoyable song is "What is Love?". It's one that you can clap to, and if you clap loud enough, you may drown out the whining. I "possibly" love this song because it's not all happy. Sure, it's honest question from a guy who clearly hasn't FULLY experienced life yet, but come on! Why ruin an ALMOST good song complete with it's own clapping machine? Don't get me wrong, he's got some great lyrics like "What is love?/ Oh, oh oh oh-oh-oh / Is it giving up? / 'Cause that's not how you raised me." But does the song really need MORE clapping?

Wow. How do I sum up such a terrible letdown? Well, nice try, dude. You're an honest dude, and girls eat that right up. Girls love boys with guitars (not cars and money). Girls will buy music of any boy in an emo plaid shirt with harry potter glasses and straightened hair. Girls love Never Shout Never. I am not a girl, I am a woman. Women do not love Never Shout Never because we would need all the advil of the WORLD to stop the pain. That is how I feel about this album. I may be too much of a cynical person to enjoy this pissing ray of sunshine music, but I do know that honesty is a hard thing to come by. My suggestion: stick to the EP, Never Shout Never, because your "less-than-21-minute" excuse for an LP made me unsettled. I may have to take an antacid later.