It’s not always amazing what creative freedom can help you achieve, but it’s never less than interesting. Led by the photogenic Tyson Ritter The All-American Rejects were the hicks from the sticks (Oklahoma, to be precise) who rode the emo bandwagon hard and gave us Dirty Little Secret, an unofficial album for a scene that quickly came to hate itself more than the actual, y’know haters ever did.
Unsurprisingly given the collective ennui which followed the major players shut up shop one by one as ideas and critical kindness dried up, with AAR’s last album Kids In The Street released in 2012. Since there have been vows that the band would never make another record again, but records about records are made to be broken as we know – and Ritter announced that following some exotic (And well received) low key gigs Sandbox would be their first independently released work.
The word independent is key, as whilst Sandbox dabbles with pop punk (The it has said to be very well executed Clothesline) there’s a lot more grit in the oyster than noughties teens might expect. Instead the melodious opener Easy Come Easy Go screeches the whole thing into life, whilst the title track compares childhood games about war to the brain scrunching reality. There’s more ugliness too on Staring Back At Me, but it’s the vapes-in-the-air weepie For Mama that will have former MTV’ers hugging their babysitters most. Creatively free, The All-American Rejects are giving us what we want, but now our interest should be more than piqued.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 