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''The All-American Rejects'' is the self-titled debut album from The All-American Rejects, released on February 4, 2003 in the United States. On March 3 it was then released in the UK. The original LP released solely by Doghouse Records was released October 15, 2002. There was a bonus CD included with it, featuring five songs by other Doghouse Records artists. - Wikipedia
Everything about Oklahoma pop-punkers the All-American Rejects screams "TRL"Class of '03, from the rebellion-lite band name carefully selected to keepteens' folks happy to the quartet's scrubbed-but-scruffy good looksto the uncritical endorsement by such mainstream media garbage shovelers asRolling Stone, Alternative Press and, uh, YM. A package tour with Avril is nodoubt in the works, too.
The tunes? First off, post-Weezer damage is in full effect here, and while JimmyEat World doesn't have much to worry about quite yet, catchy numbers like"Swing, Swing" and "One More Sad Song," with their chugalugabeats, sing-songy nursery rhyme vocals (charting the requisite heart-on-sleevelyrics, natch), brisk n' crunchy power chords and deedly-dee synthlines, come off like demographically-tested/company boardroom emo. Less filling,tastes great, eh, lads? Now, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thingafterall, kids just wanna rock!if the formula were to be varied on occasion.Every now and then a glimmer of inspiration does peek outthe angelic choirbridge in "Why Worry," for example, suggests that at least one ofthe Rejects' parents owns a Cheap Trick albumbut just as quicklydissolves into a gooey blur of the aforementioned overused motifs. Worse, theband doesn't even trust its own rhythmic sense, relying all too frequentlyon drum programming. This isn't rock n' roll, but a facsimilethereof. The label is touting its young charges' music as "hook-filledpop rock on steroids," which is almost accurate: substitute "saccharin"for "steroids" and you've just about got it.