“What Is Love?”
Artist: Never Shout Never
Label: Loveway Records
2 1/2 out of 5 pitchforks

Teenage girls love him; guys would love to stab him. This seems to be the standard reception after every EP released by 18-year-old Christofer Ingle, aka Never Shout Never.

It’s not so much in his lack of distorted guitar that helped earn him this reputation, but his penchant for acoustic ditties laden with sugary hooks that did him in. To say that love is Ingle’s most overused noun would probably be an understatement — and that’s exactly what the masculine haters are feeding off of.

But whether you love or despise his style, you can be sure of one thing: He is getting the last laugh with his millions of MySpace plays and his vanguard of fans willing to jump off a bridge at his command. Not bad for someone who made his way with four-song EPs.

This time isn’t much different. In Never Shout Never’s first full-length debut, “What Is Love?,” Ingle stays relatively close to his comfort zone. Instead of trying to expand his fan base by adding faster tempos and grit, Ingle has upped the ante on love clichés and songs dealing with “daddy issues.” Fans of his previous works will no doubt leap for joy, but everyone else is sure to discredit him as a scenster who has yet to go through puberty.

We are first introduced to the album with the fun little number, “Love Is Our Weapon.” Its vocals are catchy with the occasional giddy keyboard line, but lyrically, it’s a hard pill to swallow. The song plays out with a sense of idealism that’s a little too ambitious for its own good. Throughout the verse and chorus, Ingle pleads for “change,” but I sense he does so without having a clear grasp on what exactly the “change” is.

For a similar case of insincerity, see “I Love You Five,” which vaguely resembles a modern day showtune with its big beat and lavish “bah dah’s” chiming in the background. Really, the whole thing is like sucking in helium from a balloon. It provides a short burst of good-humored fun, but without any real lyrical substance, its effects wear off quickly.

It isn’t until the album’s midpoint that Ingle starts to reveal his true colors. In “The Past,” he discloses his troubled childhood and bullying that haunted his school life. Its powerful climax reaches a crescendo with bar piano, drums and ambivalent guitar. The dense instrumentation shown in songs like this provides good contrast against the album’s typical minimalist approach.

More often than not, “What Is Love?” features songs almost exclusively from acoustic guitar, with a tambourine sprinkled in for good measure.

However, at the album’s end, it is apparent that Ingle has saved his most personal track for the last. The concluding “Damn Dog” sheds light on a turbulent father-son relationship. For the first (and only) time in the album, Ingle’s lyrics on love seem to come from a place of complete sincerity. Aside from Ingle’s lone acoustic guitar, the haunting melody of a violin accompanies the pained ballad, depicting a sense of sorrow in the generally cordial sounding musician.

In hindsight, it is clear “What Is Love?” is the kind of record the MySpace generation has been hinting at for years now. Whatever the movement had with The Scene Aesthetic and Forever The Sickest Kids has increased tenfold with Never Shout Never. His boyish charm, mixed with poppier acoustics, will no doubt find its place in the hearts of teenage girls — but that’s about the extent of it.

Unless you count the album’s contrived use of swear words as “in your face,” don’t expect your older brother to catch on any time soon.

Reach Dane at djarvie@asu.edu