No, it’s not about Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson’s rumored romance with Taylor Swift, although she contributes girlish harmonies to the alternative rock-country pop tune, the Boston band’s second platinum single. Read the title of “Two Is Better Than One” as a reflection of the circumstances in which Boys Like Girls made its accompanying album, “Love Drunk”: Half was recorded in New York City, half in Vancouver, with two different producers, production teams, and approaches.
Two heads or two hearts — regardless, one can picture the ladies swooning for this lovestruck emo-pop midtempo number, replete with plucky strings, full-bodied orchestral arrangements, and sensual details. Swift wistfully sings, “I remember every look upon your face,” and Johnson adds, “The way you roll your eyes / The way you taste / You make it hard for breathing.” Gasp. True to their name, these veterans of that punk-pop live pachyderm, the Vans Warped Tour, aren’t afraid to let their soft side show, even while fielding disses from critics such as Allmusic’s Tim Sendra, who called “Two Is Better Than One” “something Diane Warren would have shelved for being too trite and formulaic.”
–Kimberly Chun