Album Review: The All-American Rejects- Kids In The Street

(click here to purchase this album)

The All-American Rejects may well be one of the most inconsistent bands I have ever listened to. I’ll get that right out of the way from the very beginning so I don’t have to refer back to it later. Following up their near-perfect pop-rock sound on sophomore album Move Along, AAR released what hopefully will be marked down in history as their worst album, 2008’s When the World Came Down. While the band again received publicity for singles “I Wanna” and the ubiquitous “Gives You Hell,” the album was a taste of the very same bland pop-rock that Move Along was a break from. Four years later, the band is now releasing its fourth full-length Kids in the Street, and it is surprisingly… not terrible.

After first single “Beekeeper’s Daughter” was released, I immediately wrote off this album, seeing the same corniness and simplicity that made me hate “Gives You Hell;” and in the context of the album, the song doesn’t fare too much better. The song feels tired in the sound the band is going for and uninteresting when compared with the very strong opening track, “Someday’s Gone.”

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it,  “Beekeeper’s Daughter” is followed up by a song that makes even it look good by comparison. “Fast and Slow” may be one of the most bland and cliché songs the band has ever written. With an overly simple chorus of “You go fast, I go slow, meet you in the middle just to let you know it’s gonna be alright” and a monotone vocal performance, it is, simply put, a very bad song.

As I stated in the intro, I find All-American Rejects to be the kind of band that will have absolute standout tracks and then completely forgettable tracks on the same album. They have never been a band for which I can listen to the entirety of an album and enjoy it. But often they’ll have 3 or 4 tracks that are excellent examples of great pop-rock (if it’s a particularly good album, like Move Along, the number will be closer to 5 or 6). Kids in the Street is no exception to this rule. “Heartbeat Slowing Down” might be the best ballad the band has released since “It Ends Tonight,” and it really shows off the vocal talent that Tyson Ritter possesses. 

But the back end of the album is where the real gems of this album shine forward. In fact there is a 3 song block that rivals any on Move Along on the back half of Kids in the Street. “Bleed In Your Mind” features a really intriguing batch of background sounds, including a whip-like sound and a few interesting percussive elements, and also features an excellent backing vocals performance all round. The production really shines on this track, as the extra elements available to a major label band are abundantly clear here. 

The track after that, “Gonzo” continues the pattern of mid-tempo pop-rock tracks that are heavily percussion oriented. But the track is intriguing because even though there is an electronic drum beat, drummer Chris Gaylor added a live-track beat on top of it, providing for the crushing bridge of the song. The song comes to a pause, then explodes back into the chorus with a huge bang. But the band tops themselves with the tenth song on the album, “Affection” which decides to forgo the abrupt change for a gigantic crescendo instead, which at 2:58 of the track, provides the album’s best payoff, a screeching guitar and Tyson Ritter yelling, “Affection. All I want, someone’s affection.” The song then provides its own denouement with a touching piano outro. 

The album then closes itself out with two tracks (“I For You” and “Drown Next To Me”) that, while decent enough songs, cannot touch the level of emotion and power that the end of “Affection” provides. In hindsight, “Affection probably should have closed out the album instead of the far-too-long “Drown Next To Me,” (which clocks in at an unwieldy 6 minutes and 52 seconds).

Bottom Line: The All-American Rejects retain their inconsistencies, but they also maintained their ability to provide a few fantastic pop-rock songs. Tyson Ritter is still a capable vocalist, and if you ignore “Beekeepers’ Daughter” Kids in the Street is a really respectable release. It is by no means the band’s peak, but at least it’s better than When the World Came Down. 

Recommended if you rock: Every Avenue, Panic at the Disco’s Vices & Virtues, Move Along, AJ Burnett