Story by Christian Garay
Staff Writer
Rate: 3/5
It has been 10 years since Oklahoma pop rock band, The All-American Rejects, released their first album for the world to hear and with the newest addition to their musical repertoire, “Kids In the Street”, the band looks to add some acute studio trickery to their sound.
The band’s new producer for their album, Greg Wells, who has produced for a number of superstars like Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson, added a new sound to the band’s music. Of course, some true fans of the band might be disappointed by the “new” sound “Kids In the Street” portrays in an attempt to attract a new fan base.
“The music climate has changed so much for bands, especially bands with guitars in their hands… our contemporaries, our colleagues, have burnt themselves out, it seems,” frontman Tyson Ritter told Billboard during an interview on the set of one of their music videos.
The music part of the album is not half bad. It is obvious from the first couple tracks that the Rejects have matured substantially not only musically but as people. Songs like “Beekeepers ‘s Daughter”, which captures a tumultuous time while Ritter was living in Los Angeles after wrapping two years of touring, show that their songs don’t just portray high school crushes anymore.
The standout tracks from the album has to be the self titled track, “Kids in the Street” as well as “Fast and Slow”, both showing Ritter’s new experimentation with vocal effects with nice melodic undertones.
As this album may sound completely different from the Rejects past three it is definitely worth picking up. Even people who are not fans of the band will not be disappointed.
The All-American Rejects lost the ‘punk’ edge that their earlier albums showed, but a great band is defined by how comfortable they are to change their sound, and this works well. “Kids In the Street” is a well put together album from a band whose sound is constantly changing throughout the years.
