Review Summary: While we got our genuine All Time Low back one can't help to think, that we had the result of a rushed redemption.
All Time Low is back.
I remember saying in my Facebook review of Dirty Work last year that if any band was more likely to return to form, it would be All Time Low. What we have here are 12 combinations of anything All Time Low ever created. Some are superb, most are good, and some are not so good.
The first of the superb songs is the lead single, and lead track "The Reckless and the Brave". The track features a very wide open beat, with Jack Barakat's finest guitar solo to date. This song will fill football highlight reels for years to come. In the same regards we have "So Long Soldier". I hear this song and my mind is blasted back to the days of The Party Scene, and So Wrong It's Right, with a fast, genuine pop punk song structure. The song also features a collaboration with Anthony Ranieri (The lead singer of the pop punk band Bayside) and it's a perfect fit. However the bands most shining moment of this CD is their hometown anthem "For Baltimore." It's a pop rock powerhouse of a song, and it's as catchy as it is genuine All Time Low.
With these batch of great songs, you get some songs that are filler tracks and that the album would be better off without. One of these is "Thanks to You" the song is nothing short of a cliche filled mess. The rhythm accompanying isn't all the great either with a generic 8 chord approach to the song. "The Irony of Choking on a Life Saver" is just... well I'll put it this way if Dirty Work would have never happened it would have been more easier to embrace this track. The approach is very similar to that of "Forget About It" off of the last album. Which was equally as annoying as it was total ***. What I do miss however is the rambunctious nature ATL used to give us. I listen to songs like "Back Seat Serenade" and while it's good, I'm like.. where did the fun go? In taking this all work no play approach they're starting to take the political route that becomes the demise of similar bands, like Green Day and Fall Out Boy. Hopefully this is only a phase.
However, us All Time Low diehards got what we wanted through this CD. A great batch of pop punk/rock songs that'll throw any song from Dirty Work to the back of setlists.
