#alt-rock

The All-American Rejects Are Kind Of Underrated

One of my favorite things about media and entertainment is that everybody’s experience with a certain medium is different. Not even in terms of liking different things, because everyone’s taste is also different, but people also discover things differently. The first album that you ever heard, or that made you fall in love with music, might not be the same one that I first fell in love with. My favorite bands when I first got into music might not be the same as yours, but if they are, that’s a really cool thing we can bond over. The experiences that people have when it comes to getting into music are all different, and I just love how unique everyone’s individual experiences can be. I first got into music my eighth grade year, so when I was about 12 or 13 years old, but I didn’t completely get into music right away. I mainly always just listened to whatever my parents liked, so a lot of country and some classic rock (their classic rock collection was pivotal in me getting into classic rock around a year or two later, especially with bands like Hall & Oates, The Eagles, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, who are three of my favorite bands today), but I wanted music that was “mine.” I guess I grew up at the right time, because this was when emo, pop-punk, and alternative was exploding in the mainstream. As a kid going through puberty, I was very angsty, emotional, and going through a lot of changes, both physically and emotionally, so I was looking for stuff that I could relate to. The alternative scene really spoke to me, so bands like Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, and Paramore were bands I gravitated towards.

The first album I ever picked up, however, was a little record called Move Along by The All-American Rejects. That album turns 20 this year, and I wanted to write a retrospective on that album by itself, but a few weeks ago, I picked up their debut and the follow-up to that album, those being the 2002 self-titled and 2008’s When The World Comes Down, so I wanted to talk about their first few albums as a whole. I’ve spent some time with these, and I think The All-American Rejects are a rather underrated band, at least these days, anyway. They were huge back in the 00s, but their star power has fallen a bit, especially in terms of a mainstream band. They’re pretty nostalgic for a lot of people, myself included, but they’re not the rockstars that they once were. They just put out a new single after over a decade of being inactive, but people mainly remember their first few albums, especially Move Along. That was their peak, but When The World Comes Down was a still pretty successful album I its own right. Their self-titled debut, however, is where it all began. This album has the single “Swing, Swing” that a lot of people remember as well, especially in the alternative and emo scene. They weren’t super popular yet, but this record was a big deal. The All-American Rejects are cool, too, because they had one foot in the mainstream alternative scene and the emo and pop-punk scene. They were a perfect “crossover” band in that sense, so I can understand why their sophomore album exploded. Their debut, however, is more or less a power-pop, pop-rock, pop-punk, and emo record that runs the gambit of all those styles. This record is kind of rough around the edges in spots, but it’s a charming and fun little record. I don’t have a lot to say about it, and that’s one reason why I wanted to talk about their first three albums as a whole, because their debut is pretty generic. It’s really good, and it’s got some great hooks on it, but it’s nothing you haven’t heard before.

It's their sophomore album, 2005’s Move Along, where I think they got a lot better. This album was a big moment for the band, whether it was the title track, “Dirty Little Secret,” “Stab My Back,” or a few other songs on the record, but this record is really awesome. This record moved the band into a more mainstream pop-rock sound, but they kept some pop-punk and emo influences. The hooks were more pronounced, and more pop-focused, but the lyrics were still kind of emo and relatable, so they had a nice balance. I love this record, and I was surprised at how much I love it, because I hadn’t listened to it in so long, but I dusted it off when I picked up their debut and third albums, so I was like, “Let me listen to the album I remember, and see how it holds up,” but I love it. It’s so catchy, fun, and full of variety, it never gets old. Every song is very catchy, well-produced, and unique to itself. This album has a few lanes it goes down, but it manages to be unique and catchy. Every song sticks out, and the album never gets boring or lackluster, so I love it. I don’t have a lot to say about this album the more that I think about it, minus the nostalgia that I have for it, because it’s a relatively straightforward pop-rock album, but it’s a great one. It’s one of my favorites of the era, but I think it’s kind of the more underrated albums, only because so many great and iconic albums came out at the time. That same year had albums from Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Paramore, Avenged Sevenfold, Plain White T’s, The Academy Is, and a ton more heavy hitters, so this album got the shaft. It was a still a success, because people loved a few singles from it, but I think this album is more underrated these days, despite being one of the best albums from that year.

Their follow-up, however, is another album that I hadn’t heard. I never checked it out when it came out in 2008, but I think that’s because I was into metalcore and post-hardcore at the time, along with a bunch of “neon pop-punk,” so the album fell to the wayside for me. I’ve listened to When The World Comes Down a few times, and aside from the lead single “Gives You Hell” being pretty cool, I don’t care for this album a whole lot. I don’t dislike this record at all, but it’s definitely a step down from their last two. It’s a generic pop-rock album, but without any of the emo and pop-punk influence that they had, even on their last album. This album isn’t bad, or even offensive in any way, but it’s a generic and boring album that doesn’t quite do anything interesting. I don’t actively dislike it, but there’s a step down in quality. There’s a reason why this album didn’t do as well, and it’s both due to the fact that pop-rock in the mainstream was starting to die down by this point (minus a few bands that would still very popular in the coming decade), and this record just isn’t great. It’s fine, but this isn’t a good first impression with this band, so I’m glad I got Move Along, because that album is so good. There’s just something about it that doesn’t click with me that much, and it’s unfortunate, because I really want to like it more. I might need to give it more listens, but it’s still a decent record. I don’t hate it or anything like that, but it’s easily not my favorite.