Wonders of the Younger by Plain White T's

                  When it comes to music I am kind of cranky.  This is the honest truth.  Something has to be unique in order to keep my attention.  Songs cannot sound too similar.  I am also not fond of silence gaps between songs.  This is not as important as the same sounding songs, but there is something I like about one song flowing into the next.  Maybe it is having spent so many years around musical theatre.

                The first time I put Wonders of the Younger in the CD player of my car, I was not sure about it.  The first few songs sounded alike.  Could this have been because I was driving to somewhere I did not particularly want to go?  That is certainly possible.  When I played the disc again, I noticed great differences.  Is not it interesting how dreading something can make a person’s impressions get skewed?

                Once I got over my initial rejection, I could not stop playing the album.  I do not know how many times this was my chosen music of the day.  There are so many different influences.  One song sounds as though it belongs in a twisted and creepy carnival.  Then another will sound like pop music of the late fifties or early sixties.  From there it will go somewhere else entirely.

                The lyrics are not overly complicated but they are interesting and keep me listening.  It is also easy to catch every word.  Whoever is singing does a very good job of making sure everything is clear and audible.  This may sound like an odd thing to praise, but knowing what the words are makes it so much easier to sing along.

                “Rhythm of Love”, one of the songs from this album, is the reason I got this CD in the first place.  I really enjoyed the song on the radio and one of my friends and I even got in a discussion about who sang it.  The video I could picture perfectly, but I could not figure out who performed it.  Once I looked the group up, I decided to give the whole album a try.  I am very happy I did.