Album Cover

All-American Rejects released an album right around Christmas time that I didn’t get to until now. Their previous effort, Move Along, was a good album in itself. It was fun, mostly light hearted, but primarily it was pop fluff. The new album, When the World Comes Down still sounds like All-American Rejects, but adds something new: incredible musical dexterity and some really amazing variation in tones, harmonies, and styles. In short, this is a killer album.

The first single from the album, “Gives You Hell,” is by far the closest to their previous sound. It’s a great, fun, catchy tune, but doesn’t really cover any new ground. When you peak into the rest of the album, though, there’s something special there. There’s something for all fans of poprock: “Real World” would fit on any road trip mix with it’s rollicking rhythm, “Mona Lisa” shows the softer side of the band with an acoustically driven melody that flirts with country western and hosting the album title as lyrics, “Sunshine” is a hidden track worth waiting for, with a real happiness to it that earns the name of the song.

The real standout from the album is a song featuring girl rocker duo The Pierces, called “Another Heart Calls.” The song has an orchestral background, incredible melodies and harmonies from both male and female vocals, and even though it’s a clearly group effort, everyone involved still individually shines as well. This is everything you can ask for out of a pop song, and shows that the band has truly evolved into something new, comfortable enough with their core sound to try something new. There are other tracks on the album that show this new ability off, but this is the crown jewel, for certain.

Old fans will find the band they recognize in When the World Comes Down, and listeners who may have dismissed All-American Rejects before would do well to give them another shot here. You can purchase it from iTunes here for $7.99.

(left to right: Eric Wagler, Ryan Wagler, Mike Burtett, Mike Nichols)

With an album titled Memento Mori, a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “remember that you are mortal, remember you will die”, there is a lesson and message to be heard. The album fittingly reveals we must live each day to its fullest, for tomorrow may not remember us. Since they’ve been together for more than a decade, they don’t seem like a band, more like a brotherhood and their music truly shows how they in sync.
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This year’s most nostalgic alt-rock parade, held at Grant Park in Chicago, took a more subtle note from years’ past with a lineup that spoke more to fan loyalty and longevity than emerging buzz and bombast. Iggy and The Stooges, Pearl Jam and Modest Mouse all spoke to their respective die-hard collectives, but as far as sporting the best rookies, the lineup fell a bit short. Last year’s festival capitalized on the most electric acts of 2006 with Gnarls Barkley, Editors, Mates of State, The Raconteurs and Panic! at the Disco. While Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, The Hold Steady and Polyphonic Spree helped to continue that trend, artists such as Explosions in the Sky, Brazilian Girls, Shiny Toy Guns, Rufus Wainwright, Junior Boys, Lily Allen and Patrick Wolf were sorely missed, not to mention Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and the reassembled Rage Against the Machine, who all broke their teeth touring with the festival in the early 90s.

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Greetings and welcome to the new ShotgunReviews.com. Since 1999, we’ve done our best to give you worthwhile (and often funny) reviews and columns, and it’s time to shake off the rust and do it a little differently. We’ve kicked around a few ideas regarding how we’d do this new thing, and we hope you like what you see.

The new design comes to us from Barb Hallock, a student of mine with the appropriate attitude for this place (that is, bad). The more bloggish format puts us more on par with the current landscape. After all, we’ve been doing this almost eight full years. It was time for a big change. I think that you’ll agree that the new format, with a huge list of categories and easy searching, is a good one.

As part of that big change, we’ve brought in an influx of new talent from a variety of places. The entirety of our Best Shots team, responsible for the Best Shots column that runs every Monday at Newsarama.com, is now operating here in several capacities. You’ll also meet several talented young writers, including Barb herself, who will be tackling a variety of topics.

However, if you’re one of the rare folks that has read us since 1999, don’t get too worried. Shawn Delaney will still grace us with terrific music reviews, as will Jonathan Birdsong and the Lyrical Lounge crew. The Russ is back on wrestling coverage in full force. L.I. Rapkin’s already kicking in some culture. Eric Barker’s already opened the film vaults. And they aren’t the only familiar faces lurking around.

In the next few days and weeks, you’ll see the roster expand a little more and you’ll see some new recurring columns and features that we hope will become favorites. If you want to check out the old stuff, the old site currently still exists in its full glory under the archive button. If you want to talk about any of the stuff, old or new, visit our newly established forums.

So there’s my big speech. Enjoy yourselves, express yourselves, and invite friends. ShotgunReviews.com never went away, but we are most certainly back. Thanks for your time.