Hot Chelle Rae releases debut album

If I'm being honest, the only real reason that I decided to give Hot Chelle Rae the time of day is because I am a bit of  "Gleek" and I discovered that one of the band members (Nash) is the brother of Chord Overstreet. Since I have been listening to their single, "Tonight Tonight," since it came out, I figured I should stretch the bounds of my charity further by reviewing their debut album titled "Whatever."

Now, when I say that I have been listening to their single since it came, I need to clarify that this was not by choice necessarily. I liked it at first, but like most good songs that you hear on the radio, you know that song is going to be played a million times a day for the unforeseeable future. By now, I have grown to almost detest that song, as well as their song "I Like It Like That," which has also been playing nonstop for the past month or so. However, I did like both when they first debuted. I liked them because I thought they represented that party side of college-age people that you might see in National Lampoon movie or something. They were just great party anthems.

My initial impression of the album was that most of the songs on the record were pretty catchy and upbeat, which I think was a good move for a budding pop band. The lead singer, Ryan, has a very smooth, velvety voice and the ability to sing at a rather fast pace while still being understandable to the listener – as evidenced by the zippy song, "Downtown Girl."

However, as I continued to listen I realized two things: 1) these guys are good, but they may have some trouble with making future albums original and fresh seeing as, even in this first album, there were some redundancies in at least two of their songs. What I mean is that the choruses for "Whatever" and " I Like It Like That" were so similar at one point that I think they probably could have been cut and mashed together to make one long song that could have flowed easily between the two choruses. The second thing I realized was that there were one or two songs that really conflicted with the overall theme of the album. Most of the songs – including the title track "Whatever" – present a theme of partying and nonchalance about the consequences. But then you have a few tracks like "Why Don't You Love Me?" that present a completely different theme of love and heartbreak. Don't get me wrong though. Most all of the songs are pretty easy on the ears, but the album seems to have a bit of an identity crisis half way through.

Overall, this was a pretty successful album. If you're looking for a feel-good record to listen to that's also very easy to listen to, then I would definitely recommend "Whatever" by Hot Chelle Rae.

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