Straight Up Random

CD Review: Smile Kid by We The Kings

The Band: We The Kings

The Album: Smile Kid

Stand Out Tracks: “Rain Falls Down,” “Spin,” and “The Story Of Your Life”

The Review: We The Kings’ sophomore album Smile Kid does exactly what the title of the album wants you to do – smile. It’s hard to resist the sunny pop music from the sunshine state band.

The lyrics on this album are cheesier than on their debut self-titled, which is quite the feat, but the band continues to sing about the same subjects which can be summarized in one word – love. Break-up songs are non-existent on this album like most pop rock bands have, but instead they sing about their love or their longing for the love of a special someone. Songs like “She Takes Me High,” “Summer Love,” and “Anna Marie (All We Need)” exemplify this.

Smile Kid plays around with different beats and melodies so none of the songs blend together and they become more distinguishable from each other more so than they did on their first album. Their song “Promise The Stars,” is unlike any other We The Kings song as it has a relaxed tempo and island feel during the verse, and then picks up the pace and blends in some pop elements for the chorus. The introduction for “In-N-Out (Animal Style),” has a choppy beat from the guitar and a bubbly synthesizer with vocals that follow the same pattern of the guitar.

It seems that there is a trend with bands pairing up with a teen pop star for one of their songs and singing some kind of ballad. We The Kings is following this trend with their song “We’ll Be A Dream,” and the pop star they paired up with is Demi Lovato. As slow as the song is, it will most likely help We The Kings break out into the mainstream and be heard on top 40 radio stations across the nation.

Even though the music We The Kings makes isn’t groundbreaking, it’s still enjoyable to listen to. Their music isn’t complicated to understand, and the simplicity of their music allows for Smile Kid to be a go-to album to put in and have fun with either blasting through the speakers in your house or with the top down playing through the speakers of your car on a casual car drive.

The Rating: 3 out of 5