Nearly 4 years after the release of When The World Comes Down, Oklahoma's All-American Rejects have
just released their fourth album, Kids In
The Street. Off the back of platinum, double platinum and gold records, the
power-pop quartet decided to experiment with their newest material. With fans
already getting tasters before the album’s release – in the form of 3 singles –
it is clear that this experimentation with “horns and various synths” has already
paid off.
Opening track Somebody’s
Gone kick-starts the album with feedback, a scream of “1 2 3 4” and a
massive build-up of guitars and drums more suited to heavier music. Then it
stops and turns into a much more recognizable – much more pop-influenced – All-American
Rejects. This is a brilliant opening; it kept me guessing and kept me on my
toes. It’s not something you usually get from a pop song, but it worked.
Second track, and incidentally second single, Beekeeper’s Daughter has the first taste of experimentation on the
album. The use of horns makes this track stand out to me, and they work
wonderfully with what is an already happy-sounding song. Although it has a bit
of a Nickelback vibe, the band throw away all comparisons: Tyson Ritter’s
wonderfully laid-back vocals and a guitar solo at the end remind you that this
band deserve the ‘rock’ label they tend to receive. The next two tracks, Fast & Slow and Heartbeat Slowing Down, show examples of the band’s “various synths”,
with the latter even featuring what sounds like electronic drums. In my eyes,
it’s a brave move that proves this band are definitely making music for
themselves as much as they are for their fans.
Walk Over Me shows the
first real ‘riff’ of the album, and the song is definitely influenced by times
gone by. When it first started I thought Status Quo, then Culture Club, and I’m
sure I heard a hint of Queen in there too. As much as I enjoyed this blast from
the past, it didn’t sit right with the rest of the album. I love experimentation
and bands trying something different, but in my opinion it upset the flow of
the record.
Things get back to normal, though, as we see tracks Out The Door and Kids In The Street swap between guitar and synth-orientated sounds.
The amount of percussion alone in Bleed
Into Your Mind shows how far The All-American Rejects will take their
experiments, and at times the song sounded like it was from a far-off land. At
just shy of three minutes, it was far too short.
The last three tracks on Kids
In The Street form what can only be described as an ‘epic’ trifecta, and
they polish off the album perfectly. Gonzo
and Affection both have big loud
endings, with the latter heavily featuring string instruments in the place of
synths. The only thing missing from the album so far has been an acoustic
track, but we find it at the end in the form of I For You. Acoustic tracks, for me, are a tradition in rock albums
that will never grow old, and this is a perfect end to The All-American Rejects’
newest record.
Although this album is very much a pop album, that is in no way a
bad thing. With Grammy-nominated Greg Wells producing – who has been behind
tracks by Adele, Katy Perry and OneRepublic – I don’t think there was any way
this would have been a full-on rock record. Throughout the album, The
All-American Rejects show no signs of trying to stick to any defined rules, and
for this I truly commend them.
Kids In The Street is out now.
JL
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