By Susie Salva

Boston based pop-punk rockers Boys Like Girls release their sophomore album “Love Drunk” on Columbia Records, which is thoroughly intoxicating. These four friends didn’t have to look far for inspiration when it came time to record “Love Drunk” the long-awaited follow-up to their self-titled Columbia Records debut. The band knew how much they had progressed as a band while crediting a lot to their growing fan base. In the vain of All American Rejects and Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls delivers some of the most exciting music of the past decade.

The band is comprised of Martin Johnson on vocals and guitar, guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, bassist Brian Donahue, and rounding it off is drummer John Keefe. The group puts forth catchy choruses, dance beats, and universal themes of love gone wrong. To capture the essence of the band they ascribed to making their sound more spontaneous and more importantly, creating a pristine sound instead of over-processing found so prominently on many of the current artists’ records to date. The mindset of BLG that rules their live show is also the mindset that helped shape “Love Drunk”.

“We came into the studio and started banging this new record out, it was like second nature to us. We didn’t want to write an album that was the same as our first record, but we still wanted to do something that would be fun and different and cool, and stay totally locked with our fan base. That’s because they have been here for us since the beginning and allowed us to evolve with them. They (fan base) are the most important thing to us,” says Johnson the primary songwriter of the band.

Look no further than “Love Drunk”, the album’s anthemic lead single and title track. It is a punchy celebration of love’s intoxicating effects. Boys Like Girls songs deal with the challenges of heartbreak and also the elation of new romance. “Love Drunk,” track has all of the happy medium between the band’s pop-rock debut and the more electronic fashion of bands like the Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

The lead track, “Heart, Heart, Heartbreak,” another pop-rock anthem, ramps the arena-ready sound up another notch, the verse-chorus-guitar solo combo custom made for audience participation and “Contagious,” follows suit with a penetrating bottom-end and rich vocal harmonies, further elevating Boys Like Girls to infectious new heights. On the less raucous end of the musical spectrum, a string section helps set the tone for the tender ballad with country superstar Taylor Swift on “Two Is Better Than One,” while the mid-tempo “The First One,” offers an endearing take on bouncing back from a broken heart.

Voted by Spin.com as Artist of the Year, it is easy to see why Boys Like Girls are so revered by their undying fan base while proving they are not at all affected by the sophomore slump. The band has made a smooth transition and progression from where they first started with their debut CD the self-titled, “Boys Like Girls.” Catch frontman Martin Johnson performing the National Anthem on Monday Night Football’s opening game on September 14th. They will also begin their headline tour on October 14th. Follow them on www.boyslikegirls.com and www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls.com.