DeGraw’s sophomore album is full of love songs

DeGraw’s new album is his only work since 2003.

By Jess Camp

Published May 6, 2008

Every Tuesday night teens everywhere grab their popcorn, turn on the TV, prep themselves to watch the drama-filled show “One Tree Hill” and hum along to its catchy opening tune, “I Don’t Want to Be.”

Some might think an hour is not nearly enough time to be spent on teen angst, so maybe they decide to rent “Tristan + Isolde” for an even longer cryfest.

You’re getting sucked into the romance, clutching your tissues, when all of a sudden the climax hits with such a powerful song (“We Belong Together”) that you get chills up and down your spine as the release of pent-up, raw emotion takes over.

Whether you like romance or not, Gavin DeGraw is responsible for both of those songs.

People who love gushy, mushy love songs have probably been lying in their beds, watching “The Notebook” and wishing that they could have Noah, waiting for an album that could appeal to their romantic side.

Luckily for them, they no longer have to wait.

DeGraw’s self-titled follow up to his 2003 debut has arrived.

While DeGraw’s last album had some thematic variety — drugs and worries of the future both came up — this album is all about relationships.

Some of the tunes are about wonderful romances, and others are full of vengeance and jilted lovers.

It’s a pretty enjoyable album, despite it’s cheesy, overused theme.

One of his less romantic moments comes in the song “Untamed.”

A lot of girls have the idea that they can take a bad boy and turn him good.

Getting someone to change their lifestyle just to please you is the ultimate form of flattery, which might be why lots of ladies like to tame the wild boys.

But in this song, DeGraw says that’s just silly.

He says that he was born to be free and that no one can tame him.

Well said.

No one should live on a leash.

But he realizes that sometimes it’s not the lads that don’t want to be tied down yet, but sometimes it’s the lasses who don’t want commitment.

His song “Next to Me (Wait a Minute Sister)” is about his need for a girl to succumb to his need to have her.

Maybe she puts on her running shoes because he’s a major creeper.

He thinks it’s because she’s scared.

“Don’t crawl away/You’ve done it every day/Just stay, why don’t you stay baby?/Put away your old disguise/You don’t want no other guys.”

Probably everyone has wanted someone who doesn’t want them back or who just moves at a very slow pace, so this song will probably strike a chord with everyone.

Perhaps the sappiest, but most powerful, song is the aforementioned “We Belong Together.”

It’s about how you really can’t be truly happy alone and that you need to fall in love to be a complete person.

Even though the point is really condescending, it’s his delivery that makes it enjoyable.

The very first line of the song is sung so demandingly (“We belong together/Like the open seas and shores/Wedded by the planet force/We’ve all been spoken for”) that it’s easy to accept it and just agree.

If he’s so confident, then we must belong together. Confidence is sexy.

The album would have been a little better if it weren’t so sappy and was more pessimistic, but maybe sometimes you just need to hear a love song.