AMG Review of What Is Love?

Andrew Leahey
All Music Guide

An emo album with an acoustic twist, What Is Love? marks the debut of 18-year-old songwriter Christofer Drew. Like Adam Young -- the sole member of Owl City -- Drew launched his one-man band by promoting the songs on MySpace, where his tales of angst and adolescent love found an appropriately teenaged audience. While Owl City proved to be visibly -- perhaps excessively -- influenced by the Postal Service, though, Drew does a better job blurring the line between his influences and his own music, coming up with a sound that owes equally to Jason Mraz, the Honorary Title, and the Early November. Producer Butch Walker, no stranger to one-man bands himself, rounds out the mix by adding harmonies, orchestral instruments, and finger snaps, and the result is a breezy, commercial record that charted at number 24 during its first week of release.