The All-American Rejects’ evolution over six years, from Alternative Press cover boys whipping emo-punks into a pogoing frenzy with “Swing, Swing” to multiplatinum-selling MTV Video Music Award-winners, proves that bigger isn’t always better.
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Though it took a year in the studio for the Oklahoma foursome to complete its third effort, the results are nowhere near as textured, layered or addictive as, say, counterpart achievers Fall Out Boy, or even early versions of the Rejects themselves. Unlike Pete Wentz & Co., AAR prefer to keep their darker musical roots buried, waving a power-pop flag of others’ design and gunning for further chart domination, yet ultimately unaware that their ammunition reserves are running dangerously low.
Slick production does little to bolster rudimentary, snap-locked lyrics and guitar work that comes off as an afterthought, while the potentially interesting gang backing vocals on “Gives You Hell,” acoustic introspection of “Mona Lisa” and piano-and-string interplay on “Fallin’ Apart” all feel antiseptic at best. Several tracks (most notably “Breakin’” and “Another Heart Calls”) evoke images of swooping cameras zooming in on the band as it earnestly postures upon a windswept hilltop. But when there’s nothing keeping those songs firmly grounded musically—or worse still, emotionally—that’s not necessarily a good thing.
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