The All-American Rejects are a band from Stillwater OK. They first major record album was their self titled album, which was released on 1 October 2002. That album consisted of what you would expect from a Pop-Rock/Punk band. The album I thought was not half bad and I would recommend it to anyone who just wants to listen to a happy-go-lucky album about girlfriends and then norm. Their New album Move Along, released on 11 July 2005, is a major improvement on their first album and it shows much more musical talent.
The Band is:
Tyson Ritter (vocals/bass)
Nick Wheeler (guitars/vocals)
Mike Kennerty (guitar)
Chris Gaylor (drums)
Track List:
1. Dirty Little Secret 3:14
2. Stab My Back 3:10
3. Move Along 4:00
4. It Ends Tonight 4:04
5. Change Your Mind 3:39
6. Night Drive 3:25
7. 11:11 pm 3:04
8. Dance Inside 4:02
9. Top Of The World 3:25
10. Straightjacket Feeling 3:37
11. I'm Waiting 3:37
12. Can't Take It 2:55
13. Night Drive (Acoustic)* 3:50
14. Eyelash Wishes* 4:09
* = UK bonus tracks
As I said before this album is a lot more musical than AAR previous album. In this album you hear violins, pianos, bongos a Spanish sounding guitar riff, much more grown up lyrics, and with all of these new types of sounds they have still got their catchiness. With tracks like 'Dirty Little secret', 'Move Along' and 'Change Your Mind', you can see that AAR have not left from their roots and still have their pop-punk style.'Dirty Little Secret', is the first single from the album and is also the opening track and it gets you straight into the mood of the genre of music makes you want to carry on and listen to more.'Move Along', the title track is another catchy song that will make you come back and listen to more.'Change Your Mind', once again another catchy song with a very quirky intro to the song, that makes you think "what are they thinking?" but as you listen on it does fit well into the song.
The More developed songs on this album have the new type of sound (for AAR anyway) like 'It Ends Tonight', 'Top of the World', 'Cant Take It' and 'Night Drive (acoustic)'. 'It Ends Tonight' starts off with a piano at a steady pass with vocals coming in shortly after. This song has a new feel because the piano gives a new depth to the song and goes well to the conversion into the guitar. 'Top of the World' opens with a very slick Spanish sounding guitar riff which reoccurs in the song throughout, this is something new for AAR and I think they did it quite well, giving more variety into this album. 'Cant Take It' here come the violins, which is not a new thing at all, but this does give a new feel into the song. The whole song is just violins, cellos and that kind of string instrument area (sorry I am not big on the orchestra) and vocals.'Night Drive (acoustic' this is a major change from the normal 'Night Drive' apart from it being acoustic it also has a different tempo and a more wondering cowboy kind of thing going on, with bongos opening up the song. This is an interesting song with an even more interesting concept.
This album comes with acoustic and electric guitar mixes, 'Stab My Back' with acoustic verses with a slower tempo which flows into the heavier chorus. 'Dance Inside' with a similar structure to 'Stab My back' with verses acoustic which then go into a heavier electric chorus.'Straightjacket Feeling' has a different structure to 'Stab My Back' and 'Dance Inside', it has an acoustic guitar all the way through with an electric guitar as a back up to give more power to the song. The album also has it's fair share of straight forward power chord driven songs, 'Night Drive' with a drum and clapping intro that goes smoothly into a metallic sounding guitar riff, followed by the verses with palm muted guitar and a tight little riff backing it up. The song also includes a strange computer generated sound through the second verse give the song more diversity. '11:11 pm' opening with a simple but effective guitar riff followed by vocals and palm muted power chords for the verse which crosses over to the chorus with the help of a ticking clock. 'Im Waiting' one of the more heavier songs of the album with simple guitar riffs but still giving the desired effect of sounding good and being addictive.'Eyelash Wishes' another simple punk rock song with the catchiness of AAR.
The round up of this album is this, 'The All-American Rejects, Move Along' is a huge improvement on their first self titled album and they have really grown up musically. The album is very enjoyable and entertaining and has a new sound for AAR. The down side to the album is that it is nothing new to the Pop-Punk, Punk-Rock genre and will not make people who are not fans of the music to change their minds in any significant way. For the whole album I would give it 3.5 out of 5.
Favorite Tracks:
Top of the World
Im Waiting
Cant Take it
Smooches x x x
