All Time Low - Last Young Renegade (2017)
I have a strained relationship with All Time Low and I think you could gather that from my reviews. They remind me of a guy you went to high school with that was pretty fun to be around at times, but hasn't really mentally aged much since high school. You agree to catch a new Marvel movie with him at the theater, and when you're eating at Wendy's with him afterwards, he's talking about some get-rich-quick-scheme he came up with the intent of gaining women (using the elusive code-word of "pussy") and cold hard cash, and then you ask him how, and his plan basically comes down to posing as an attractive guy on social media in order to try to get nude images + cash from insecure women. When you look at him like "dude, what the fuck?" he'll try to deflect the negativity with "dude, you should SEE some of the shit they say" and he'll pull up some ridiculous screenshots, and yeah, there'll be one or two that you can't help but laugh at, even if you feel terrible, but you'll still leave that fast food joint thinking "man, now I know why I'm the only person from our class who keeps in contact with him". I'm not saying that I'd expect any member of this band to do that, but hopefully you get what I mean. What I'm trying to say is that I'm all for trying to remain young, but not in a "HEY, LET'S JUST BE STUPID FUCKIN' KIDS FOREVER!!" way that these nearly-30 year old men do and perform live in order to have teenage girls throw their bras on stage. It just rubs me the wrong way.
But.. This album? This album reminds me of a hypothetical universe where the guy I was talking about actually became someone after high school. The music here is so far removed from pop-punk that I don't feel comfortable calling it a pop-punk album outside of some minor moments, most notably "Nice2KnoU" which is honestly a great tune because it taps into their past without losing sight of where they are now, but the reason I wouldn't call it just a pop-punk album is, for one, there's hardly any use of a distorted electric guitar, and if there is, it's mostly in the background. What I feel comfortable calling this is a pretty damn nice pop-rock album that is incredibly self-aware of who they were and who they are now. The lyrics reflect on younger days so much in a nostalgic way that really resonates with me, and almost scares me because these four immature pop-punk assholes sound like they've finally grown up and are ready to have families. That's right: No more searching for the hottest girl at a party, these guys sound like they're ready (and incredibly happy) to settle down with -that- person as they build up the next chapter of their lives, especially evident in Alex Gaskarth's lyrical portrayal of his identity crisis surrounding his past life of being portrayed in the media as a young guy who likes to party constantly in "Life of the Party", as Alex Gaskarth lyrics paint his thought process when he realized that he wants to escape that chapter of his life, that the party is over and hasn't even been fun for some time, and that it's all just about keeping up appearances to keep -that- image that helped cause him to get popular in the first place. I guess something I'd also liken this album to is them showing off a photo-book of their younger days popping champagne with the "bad girls" to show that they've come a long way from making dirty jokes while waiting and living for summer. It's really kind of charming.
The songs on here are all pretty fuckin' nice, but if there had to one song that I am absolutely POSITIVE will become a smash-hit if released to radio, it'd be "Ground Control (feat. Tegan & Sara)", an EXCELLENT pop song that doesn't outwear its welcome and manages to sound intertwined with this '80s pop throwback craze while incorporating a little magic that you won't hear a terrible lot of in this throwback craze that continues to go on. To elaborate further, it sounds a bit like a song that'd play in the background as you'd dance with your summer-fling at prom, soaking up every moment as being "one of the best moments of my life" as you're joyfully caught between childhood and adulthood, which All Time Low were, before entering this much more respectable phase of their music. Hell.. If you want a true sign of musical maturation, and even of them as people, just look at "Dirty Laundry" which is really incredible, if anything, to show how the mindset of Alex Gaskarth and his concept of love has matured. Let's go back in time and take for example their 2011 album "Dirty Work" and the bonus track "My Only One" and how incredibly sappy and immaturely worded it was, focusing on the concept of "You're perfect, you're my soulmate", and then look at the chorus to "Dirty Laundry" which states "Dirty laundry is piling in her room. She's got her secrets, yeah, I've got mine too. I don't care about what you did, only care about what we do. Dirty laundry looks good on you" and really take in for a second how mature that is for them: He's acknowledging the girl has (what she perceives to be) horrible things in her past that she regrets, that he has them also, and goes as far as to say that her imperfections make her -her-, and that's what he really wants: Her, not her past. I really have to nail it home: When you compare that to some of All Time Low's other work lyrically, that is fucking leagues above songs about trying to get with a girl because she's hot. If their older work was a prime lyrical example of puppy-love, this song in particular is a sign that they've finally realized that life isn't about hanging out with hot girls hoping for a Disney ending, and are now actually capable of having a loving, devoted relationship without having to jump over any complicated teenage bullshit hurdles.
My relationship with All Time Low was pretty strained before, with me giving okay ratings to most of their work under the belief that "yeah, this is a good collection of catchy songs" but I think with this album, they've made a great cohesive album that keeps an eye on the past as they move towards the future, sacrificing guitar riffs but not good, catchy songwriting, with pretty good production to boot, leaving the songs more than the one-dimensional pop-rock tunes that I and many other people perceived the band to be exclusively capable of before. I know a lot of fans will say they "sold out" with this album, but come on, guys.. No matter how many images you reblog on Tumblr of these guys from 2008, they've definitely aged and matured. If All Time Low can accept that people change, especially themselves, and also that their days of partying are behind them, then hopefully you'll come around and realize that these are actually some pretty solid songs.. And as a guy who mainly just enjoyed the occasional All Time Low tune, I never thought I'd say an entire album of theirs was great, but here I am. It's a strange world, isn't it?
8/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
