MONDAY, APRIL 06, 2009
The Boy Least Likely To have been writing music together since 2002, but it wasn't until the release of their first LP, The Best Party Ever, that people began to take notice. With a brand of childish twee pop that seemed different than anything else at the time, the band brought with it a sense of innocence...almost as if the cute cartoon animals gracing the cover where the ones playing the instruments. Alas, the members of The Boy Least Likely To are not cartoon animals at all, but rather two full-grown men from Wendover, England who go by the names of Pete Hobbs and Jof Owen.
The duo's latest release, The Law of the Playground picks right back up where their previous album left off, though the cute dancing cartoon animals on the cover of their last album have been replaced by a very brave looking red knitted sock ball riding a tank with a top hat covering the gun. Perhaps this invokes the message of standing up to your foes non-violently, no matter how small you are. This theme is explored on one of the album's standout tracks, "Every Goliath Has Its David"; a song for anyone who's ever had to stand up to a bully in high school. In "When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade" the band explore the theme of always making the best of a bad situation. On it, Owen sings, "I've been up, I've been down, I've always got my head in the clouds, hoping that I can find one of them that's silver lined". It's lyrics like these, along with the bouncy cuteness of each song, that make The Boy Least Likely To shine in a slightly different light than most of the other indie pop bands out there these days. Their music has a sweetness in it that isn't rivaled by many, and it is for this reason that listening to The Law of the Playground is such a refreshing experience. -Greg Lozoff
