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ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS - "Move
Along"
(3/2006)
I think there are
two kinds of bands in this new "pop punk" genre. You
have the Good Charlotte, Blink-182, Simple Plan bands that have a
whiny singer that squeals over two or three haphazardly
arranged chords; and then you have bands like Bowling For Soup,
Green Day, and American Hi-Fi that can write some of the most
excellent power pop songs imaginable. It's all about songwriting for
this genre. In the progressive rock genre you have artists that are
so skilled instrumentally that you might not mind if the songwriting lacks a bit. But this
is not a genre that is naturally stacked with instrumental
talent. It's all about creative lyric play and catchy hooks with
these artists. A lack of instrumental and vocal skill can be masked
quite well if the inferior players and singers are performing a
perfectly written song with inventive lyrics and a great hook.
It seems that these
up-and-coming bands of the genre have either fallen into the "Great"
bin or the "Awful" bin; there are not a lot of them that fall in the
middle somewhere. Well, The All-American Rejects may be the first
band of the genre to land in the "Decent" bin. Some of the
songwriting is pretty good here, it just never reaches spectacular.
Songs like "Dirty Little Secret," "Night Drive," "Change Your Mind,"
and "Top Of The World" are all well written songs, but they get lost
in the repetitive nature of the band's sound. All of the songs here
are the standard formula, with the band dropping a few nice
hooks in here and there. Bassist/singer Tyson Ritter doesn't
exactly have an irritating voice to listen to, it just lacks style,
originality, and flavor. He's found singing every song in the
same spirit here, with few exceptions. Even
when the band ventures out in style by adding some string
arrangements to the songs "Straightjacket Feeling" and "Can't Take
It," Ritter stays in the same mode
vocally. There are so
many bands in this genre that sound the same, so it is vital to
be creative lyrically or musically. Although the band has tried
to set themselves apart a little bit with things like the string
arrangements, the overall sound and attitude is the
stereotypical "14-year old punk kid with a guitar" nonsense that we
hear all too much of already.
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