We The Kings- Smile Kid

Hey, y'all! It's time for me to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: December 8, 2009

Genre: Pop punk, Alternative, Power pop

When I bought the CD: I'm pretty sure I pre-ordered it and got it the day it came out... but don't quote me on that. I know I got it sometime near when it came out.

Track Listing

1. She Takes Me High
2. Promise The Stars
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. The Story of Your Life
5. Rain Falls Down
6. Summer Love
7. In-n-Out (Animal Style)
8. Spin
9. Anna-Maria (All We Need)
10. We'll Be A Dream (feat. Demi Lovato)
11. What You Do To Me

We The Kings lineup on this CD:
Travis Clark- vocals, guitar, piano
Hunter Thomsen- guitar
Drew Thomsen- bass
Danny Duncan- drums

L-R: Hunter, Danny, Travis, Drew

About We The Kings: 
The four founding members of We The Kings grew up together in Bradenton, Florida, and formed We The Kings in 2005. They released their self-titled debut in 2007, and got their first big radio success with Check Yes Juliet. They've since released 3 more CDs: Smile Kid (2009), Sunshine State of Mind (2011), and Somewhere Somehow (2013). In 2011, Drew left the band and was replaced by Charles Trippy, a youtuber who was close friends with the band. Also in 2011, Coley O'Toole joined the band as guitarist and keyboardist.

My Opinion about We The Kings:
Back when their self-titled debut was the only CD they had out, We The Kings was one of my favorite bands. I had them probably in my top 3 bands (alongside The Academy Is... and All Time Low). However, as they continued releasing more and more music, I started listening to them less and less. Their music has become gradually more and more pop and less punk, and I just don't really care about their music anymore. I still really love the old stuff, and it's not like I hate the new stuff... they're just not as good as they used to be.

About the CD:  

Two fairly successful singles spawned from Smile Kid: Heaven Can Wait and We'll Be A Dream. And honestly, that's the only thing of note that I really have to say about the CD

IMHO: 
It's OK. I was really disappointed with the CD after their really great debut. There are some songs on the CD that I really enjoy, but the rest are just filler for me. And I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to any of these songs. Even the ones I like.

As always, I'm going to give each song a rating out of 10 and then give a brief explanation of why it got that rating. 

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She Takes Me High- 9/10. I think this is a really strong opener. It's got a really fun chorus and it's really up-tempo and full of energy.

Promise The Stars- 10/10. I really enjoy this song. It's so cutesy and adorable that you can't help but love it. I dare you to try and listen to this without swaying/tapping your food/ nodding your head/etc. It's not possible.

Heaven Can Wait- 10/10. When I first heard this song, I got really excited about the CD because if every song on the CD was similar to this one, it would be super strong. Unfortunately, that's not the case, but this is classic WTK.

The Story of Your Life- 8.5/10. The chorus and bridge are really cool. The vocals and guitar combine really interestingly and I really like it. I'm not a huge fan of the verses though. If only the whole things could be like the chorus.

Rain Falls Down- 7/10. This suffers from the same problem that The Story of Your Life has. The verses aren't interesting, but the chorus is kinda interesting. But this one gets a 7 because both the chorus and verses aren't as good as those in The Story of Your Life.

Summer Love- 10/10. This song is just a breath of fresh air for me. This has the classic WTK sound that has been missing from a lot of this CD. And it's just so much fun. I really love this one.

In-n-Out (Animal Style)- 8/10. I'm seeing a pattern here. I really like WTK's choruses, but I'm not always a fan of their verses. I like the really cool effects in the transitions, but I wish the verses were stronger.

Spin- 7.5/10. Guess what? The chorus is strong, and the verses aren't! I love the lyrics in the chorus, as well as the guitar at the end of the chorus. But those verses... nope.

Anna-Maria (All We Need)- 6/10. I feel like this song doesn't really go anywhere. The verses aren't that interesting, and then they build up to what sounds like it will be a cool chorus, but it actually ends up being just about as uninteresting as the verses.

We'll Be A Dream (feat. Demi Lovato)- 9/10. When I saw that this song had Demi Lovato on it, I avoided listening to it, because that was the time when Demi was basically the Disney queen and I wanted nothing to do with that. When I finally listened to it, however, I actually really enjoyed it. And while my least favorite part of the song is the fact that she's on it, it's otherwise really great. And I generally don't like slower songs so that's kinda an accomplishment. The chorus is also pretty great and the harmonies are cool. Big surprise.

What You Do To Me- 6.5/10. The verses are pretty uninteresting. The chorus is slightly cooler, but I've never been a big fan of this song.

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Favorite Songs: Promise The Stars, Heaven Can Wait, and Summer Love

Least Favorite Songs: Anna Maria (All We Need) and What You Do To Me

Video! 

Heaven Can Wait music video (which is really hilarious)

Promise The Stars music video (possibly the funniest thing ever)

Rating: 8/10. I considered giving this a 7.5 because it's so all over the place, but when looking at how I rated other CDs, I thought it fit in with the 8 crowd. It's nowhere near as good as their debut, but it's certainly not a bad CD.


Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Have any questions? What are your opinions on We The Kings? Did you love Check Yes Juliet as much as I did?! Let me know in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!


ALSO: Apologies for the lack of a Secret Lightning Scar chapter on Saturday. It came to Friday night and I still hadn't written anything and I was definitely not in the mood to write. I have since started the next chapter, so it will be out as usual. I'm going to make up for it by flip flopping. This Saturday will be a new chapter of The Secret Lighning Scar, and next Saturday will be a new Tumblr challenge. Then, since this month has 5 Mondays, Monday the 29th will be another new chapter of The Secret Lightning Scar. So you'll get the exact same number of posts that you were supposed to get, they'll just be slightly out of order. Make sense? Cool. Thanks for reading! See y'all Saturday!