Talk about a band shedding its skin for every new album... Boys Night Out have gloriously matured for every release and their new self-titled album is no different. Having gone from a band which should have made more of an impact on the fashioanble 'emo' scene with their first album, and then made more of an impact on a commercial level with the fantastic concept album 'Trainwreck', BNO are back with their most melodic effort to date. It's devoid of screaming, devoid of breakdowns and instead runs through some huge singalong moments that will have you shouting along all summer.
'The Heirs of Error' is a fast-paced, pedal-to-the-floor gang vocal explosion of joy, a track which had me hooked from the first few bars. And it sums up BNO 2007 quite nicely. Jeff Davis' vocals no longer need to veer off into different sounds to make his band interesting, instead allowing the instrumentation to create the atmospherics. And it works. Davis' vocals are more relaxed and it creates a very melodic sound that, at times, is more Knapsack than Taking back Sunday. 'Swift and Unforgiving' is dark yet poppy, while 'Let me Be Your Swear Word' is a possible radio hit - something I don't think Boys Night Out could legitimately have said before.
And while some people will almost certainly slam the band for again changing their sound, especially as they are now more accessible than ever, the transformation sounds so comfortable and natural that you can't criticise them for it. It'll be interesting to see if BNO can pull this off live as they don't have the greatest live reputation, but on CD you can't really fault this record too much at all. Prepare to sing along this summer...
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