On the face of it, ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS shouldn't really get to me. Baldly, their sound is only really a derivation of the typical US emo blueprint and - as you'll know if you're a regular reader - the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Rival Schools and Less Than Jake don't impress me much.
Yet there's something about AAR'S crunchy, chuggy rock with hearts torn off sleeves and torn to pieces in the process that really does ot for me. And I can't really explain it that easily. Last single, the chart-worrying "Swing Swing" was catchier than the clap at a Thai knocking shop and now here's "The Last Song" where Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler crank up the sobbing angst to a dangerous 11 and boot up the amps to match. He's going, he's turning around, he's out that door and the tears are welling up however hard you think you are. Will he just go away or (gasp!) is he going to go away forever? Naturally, you can draw your own conslusions, but - despite my reservations - on this occasion, their shiny Emo offshoot is too sad, mad and sorrowful to know for me to ignore.
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"My mind is just a crutch and I hope you will miss me when I'm gone," wails Ritter as a kiss-off. Oh God....this is too much. I'll need shares in Kleenex if I keep playing this. Sad songs, eh? They say so much. A cliche maybe, but still deadly accurate.
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