All Time Low changes sound with “Last Young Renegade”

By Sydney Lynch
August 12, 2017

approved album
Album cover for “Last Young Renegade.” Designed by Sam Spratt.

The journey of a band’s sound is ever changing. Different life experiences stimulate different emotions, inspiring a new and mature sound.

All Time Low’s journey began in 2004, with the release of “The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End EP.” This EP was the prequel to their 2005 first full length album, “The Party Scene.”

“The Party Scene” was written and released during the band members’ teenage years. They proclaimed their desire to get out of their small town and used teenage heartbreak as an inspiration for their music. The unapologetic pop-punk sound of the band’s early years, has evolved into a more mature, underground pop sound in their new album “Last Young Renegade.”

All Time Low’s newest album, “Last Young Renegade,” was released June 2, 2017 and immediately began flying off the shelves. According to Billboard, All Time Low’s newest album debuted at number nine with 30,000 in traditional album sales in the first week. This made “Last Young Renegade” All Time Low’s fifth top ten album.

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this album since the first single, “Dirty Laundry,” dropped in February of 2017. I was underwhelmed by the single. I was expecting more of a hard hitting, guitar-driven rock song, similar to “Dark Side of Your Room,” track eight on the album. Dirty Laundry,” set the tone of the album four months before it was released.

In an interview with Scuzz TV, the front man of All Time Low, Alex Gaskarth, said, “[The record] kind of has a bit of an eighties flavor to it.” He added that while the album is a little bit of a wildcard, “It still sounds very much like All Time Low.”

“Last Young Renegade” embodies a synthesized sound in tracks like “Ground Control” and “Afterglow.” This is nothing like their previous albums and symbolizes the growth of the band throughout their career.

All Time Low has been one of my favorite bands since 2013, after hearing one of their most popular tracks, “Weightless. This band opened my eyes to a whole new genre of music: pop punk.

Over the years, the band has seemed to evolve from their original sound. When the band was created, the members were teenagers and thriving off inspiration of bands such as Blink-182 and Green Day. Today, all of the band members are almost 30 years-old and they use their music to express a more mature and developed sound.

I often continue to find myself listening to All Time Low’s older music. Compared to albums like “So Wrong, It’s Right” (2007) and “Put Up or Shut Up” (2006), “Last Young Renegade” was underwhelming. The music was good and the lyrics were meaningful, but the overall impact of the album was a bit lackluster. Although this was not my favorite All Time Low album, I respect the band for the change of pace within their music, but early All Time Low will always have my heart.

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Sydney Lynch

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