The All-American Rejects: Move Along : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Proof that sometimes, no matter how hard you try to emulate early-Eighties hard-rock bands like Def Leppard, you still end up sounding like Weezer doing Foreigner covers. On the follow-up to their 2002 debut -- which included the sunny, harmony-laden hit "Swing, Swing" -- the All-American Rejects make a real effort to butch up. For starters, singer-bassist Tyson Ritter has learned to temper his habit of sliding into a strained falsetto that made him seem as though he wasn't out of puberty. The midtempo title track, as well as the lead single, "Dirty Little Secret," are radio-worthy slabs of manicured punk pop with layered riff work that hints at a fascination with the guitar parts on Boston's "More Than a Feeling." And thankfully the Rejects haven't lost their knack for writing propulsive toe-tappers that have just enough adolescent ennui to make it fair to call them emo -- and mean it in the best possible way.