Austin Town Hall

After being underwhelmed (and I’m the only one) by Them Crooked Vultures, I began to look ahead to the Supergroups that I would create.  Sure, this is all conjecture, and some are jaded by my own personal tastes and connections.  It’s an interesting topic.  Who is your favorite musician, and who would you like to see them playing with?  Make your own supergroup, and tell me about it.  While I wait, I’ll throw out mine. And, I apologize for my lack of originality in naming bands.

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Since this is my first post, I thought I should give everyone a little bit of insight into who I am. Unlike the other ATH writers, I refuse to have “Guilty Pleasures.” Either I like a band, or I don’t. I won’t apologize or make excuses for what I listen to, and I try not to give other people a hard time for what they like (one exception would be Nathan). I’m not saying every band I like is great. Sometimes they have great musicians with bad lyrics and catchy beats. Sometimes they’re just catchy. And the best is when I hate a band, but I hear them so often that I’m tricked into liking them. That being said, here are five bands on my iPod that have play counts at or around 30, and that’s just since April.  Follow the jump for more.
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Rating:

The All-American Rejects have been playing their pop-punk stylings for years, perfecting their formula as best they know how. Their last effort brought mainstream hits with “Move Along” and “It Ends Tonight,” both scoring huge hits for the masses. This time around, on When the World Comes Down, the band steps a little aside from their formula, growing a bit in the process.

Of course, the band has a few hits on the way with this album, and fans wouldn’t have it any other way.  Album opener “I Wanna” is one of the stronger upbeat songs on this record, with the focus resting on Tyson Ritter’s voice just before the rest of the band joins in for the fun.  Everyone, regardless of where you stand on pop music, can appreciate the strength in the chorus, though its lyrics might be a little hollow.

Skip ahead a few tracks and you will find the first single from the album, already climbing the charts: “Gives You Hell.”  Surprisingly, this song doesn’t rest on the bands combination of solid percussion and guitar-monies, instead putting the focus crisp percussion.  This is a song that will probably stay around for months and months, in all arenas.

But, they follow all this up with “Mona Lisa,” which is a slower number than the first minutes of this album have to offer.  Acoustic guitars and Ritter’s voice are the perfect match here, creating one of the more surprising moments on the album.  It also boasts of being the song with the best set of lyrics here.

The album is filled with tunes familiar to AAR fans, although they might be a little more subdued on this effort.  You can still find really strong guitar work, regardless of what you’re into these days.  A newer touch is the usage of extemporaneous atmospherics to fill out some of the space on this album.  It shows a bit of maturity for the group.

Those of you interested in this album will surely find lots that you love here, while those who do not will leave this album be.  Nonetheless, it’s another solid performance from a group who knows exactly what they are doing, and seems to have a lot of fun doing it. Let’s have some fun with them.

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Download: All American Rejects – Gives You Hell [MP3]