Boys Like Girls Is 'Love Drunk' On Sophomore Album

Boys Like Girls mined a universe of nearly 80s songs for its sophomore album, "Love Drunk," which drops Sept. 8 with the first single -- the title track -- already out on MySpace Music and headed to Top 40 radio outlets on July 7.

"I had three records written and I wrote a whole new one and wasn't satisfied yet," Martin Johnson, the Boston pop quartet's prolific frontman, tells Billboard.com. "I wanted to really step up the bar and keep our current fans but at the same time expand it so that we're happy and we could maybe get some other age ranges happy, too."

Johnson said "Love Drunk" -- the follow-up to BLG's gold-certified self-titled 2007 debut -- is "still definitely BLG. It doesn't stray off the path too much, but, it doesn't sound as youthy, angsty, whiny. It's more grown-up lyrically and musically and taking influences from all across the board, from every type of music and putting it into one and having a lot of fun. I think a lot more people will be able to relate to it."

BLG worked on the album with producers Brian Howes (Puddle of Mudd, Hinder, Chris Cornell) in Vancouver and S*A*M & Sluggo (Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes, Metro Station) in New York. The group has been playing some of its new songs during its current tour of clubs and Six Flags amusement parks and getting a "really good reaction," according to Johnson. "We toured for pretty much three straight years on ('Boys Like Girls'), so it's been really amazing to whip out some new tracks and see the crowd's response," he says.

BLG is booked through Aug. 7, including a slot on the mtvU Sunblock Music Festival, some opening dates for "The Academy Is..." and a pair of Summer Sonic shows in Japan. The group plans to shoot a video for "Love Drunk" and plans to tour well into 2010 to support the album.