After a year’s wait, indie-rock band, the Plain White T’s, are back with their follow-up album The Big Bad World, causing fans across the world scurry to their nearest record store to snap up a copy.

This new album, containing ten titles, was released September 23 and is the band’s second created in collaboration with Hollywood Records.

With supple sounds comparable to those of the Beatles and 311, the Plain White T’s are making a statement; a statement of change. By re-capturing melodious tunes not foreign to the 1960’s, along with modern lyrics, this indie-rock band is striving to bring the feel of live performance to one’s ears, making the experience exceptionally personal.

According to the band’s Myspace page, their entire recording process differed from that of the past by their use of instruments from the ’70s, with the entire album recorded live without the use of a click-wire, so as to acquire that retro sound.

Although the record may come as a shock after their highly acclaimed hit single, Hey There Delilah (from their album Every Second Counts), it falls nothing short of it. One can still hear the reminiscent pop-rock melodies that captured the hearts of millions amidst a journey to a mature transformation of sound.

Frontman, Tom Higgenson, wrote on the band’s official MySpace that the Plain White T’s are in fact traveling down a path closely knit to their age and to their experiences acquired along the way.

“We’ve grown up, and learned more and more with every record about the band that we are and the band we want to be. When we record now, we’re listening more for character than perfection.”

Higgenson described his songwriting for this new record as second nature and purely incontestable.

“There was no second guessing,” Higgenson said about his songs. “If I thought something was good, I went with it.”

The Big Bad World is a thematic rollercoaster ride, with songs covering everything from past relationships to current ones. Through lyrics such as “I’ve made a serious mistake, I hope it’s not too late to fix the heart I’m breaking” (Serious Mistake) and “Outside a cloud is forming, in my heart the rain is pouring down” (Rainy Day), one can relate to the emotions being depicted by the band. The album not only embraces feelings of remorse and sadness, but ones of hope and satisfaction such as in the songs Someday and I Really Want You.

The Big Bad World is said to be describing Higgenson’s mistakes in relationships past and guitarist Tim Lopez’s relationship with his wife.

“Over the past year, I made lots of mistakes,” Higgenson said, “and I wanted to write about that rather than point fingers at people. I wanted to place the blame on myself. ”

The Plain White T’s give their listeners a realistic outlook on life’s greatest conquest–love–through their unparalleled stories of break-ups filled with feelings of longing and regret, meshed together with happiness and understanding. Through their lyrics, they try to demonstrate that the world is not a bad place to live in, but one that we often misunderstand in the course of the problems that life hands us along the way. The significance behind their words is to learn from mistakes made yesteryear and move on. With their new record The Big Bad World, they are simply asking us to take a second look around and see the world in a different light; one that illuminates the sky and our hearts.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com