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All Time Low

Put Up or Shut Up (2006)
Hopeless Records

Reviewer Rating:

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Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on September 15th 2006

After spending a the day in Rochester yesterday, seeing the likes of How We Are, Polar Bear Club, Permanent, Pressure, and Invade, the ride back called for something different. Something universally agreeable amongst the four of us taking the three-hour drive back home. Something...special. That something, that something was Dude Ranch .

I think anyone who liked pop-punk during their high school years needs to be reminded of why they loved it in the first place every once in a while. No, we’re not 16 anymore, but the fact remains those songs still hold up, and can still make a three-hour ride seem less than half that. All Time Low, while sharing the basic premise of being a pop-punk band, hold none of that same magic. It’s hard to be a pop-punk band that’s even somewhat memorable, I understand that, but these songs leave so little an impact it’s often hard to remember they’re playing at all.

It’s hard to even articulate, some bands just have those intangibles, and some don’t. It’s apparent right from the get-go that this is a band that fits into the ‘don’t’ side of things. “Coffee Shop Sountrack,” though inadvertently so, is a very fitting name. The boredom of the everyday coffee shop is perfectly reflected in the chords and the vocals these three minutes provide. It took me a while to figure out just who it was that singer Alex Gasgarth reminded me of, but it’s actually Kenny Vasoli of the Starting Line. The noticeable difference being that Vasoli has a little something extra in his delivery, thus letting Starting Line songs build on a much stronger foundation than All Time Low is able to. It’s not that I don’t think they’re trying, because it does sound like an honest effort, but the fact remains that none of the songs have that ability to grab you at first, in the middle, or even at the end.

I can admit, the band does throw some catchy chord progressions together -- look no farther than “Jersey Rae” for that, but their ineptitude when it comes to tying the package together is what really does them in. Either the vocals outshine the instrumentation, or vice versa; it’s rare that both are on cue, and even then, the rope holding everything together is frayed at best. Furthermore, finding off-key vocals or lackluster chord progressions is not half as uncommon as it should be.

They’re able to hide a lot of the inconsistency with simplicity, but only so much can be held back before becoming painfully evident that the substance is lacking.

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burk (November 9, 2009)

ah great.. another over ambitious poppunk band that the teenagers will love and embrace. They should get a haircut and get a little dirt on their nose.. and Yes ive head all their albums. He can sing, they can play but there's nothing remotely new or refreshing with this band.

kylewagoner (January 16, 2009)

hahahahahhahahahahahaha Your review was fucking perfect and hilarious. I'd give it zero stars if I could.

pinkxxx (September 26, 2008)

This album is great and the lyrics are absolutley amazing. You can't trash people who are younger and way more successful than you. Whoever wrote this must have terrible taste in music!

skatergoespunk (August 1, 2008)

Who the hell writes these god awful reviews?
Did you even listen to the album? The lyrics are amazing and the music is exactly what you would expect from a pop punk band. These guys are more than original so stop comparing them to that sellout fall out boy and other bands. go and read the lyrics. If you ever came up with anything remotely that good you would be getting famous too.

hey get this. you people are old now. take your lame dicks and stop trashing good bands. douche bags

mattminds (July 7, 2008)

i think it's better if older people review "youth" music. kids have no sense of good music anymore. how many kids in the pop punk scene today listen to the descendents? how about OLD lifetime?

AlexSxE (June 7, 2008)

this album is great to me, probobly one of my favorite pop-punk records. coffeeshop soundtrack not only has to be the greatest opening track ever, but one of the best songs ever. their full length was kinda dissappointing and it seems their quick rise to sucess has gotten to their heads.

xartaficial_romance (November 20, 2007)

Very short album. But tons of talent met these guys in Pittsburgh on the Warped Tour. Their new album which was just released is good but not as catchy as this album. Would definitley recommend this album

blacky646 (August 6, 2007)

i think its time you let guys let younger people review pop-punk.
leave youth music alone

xxjohnnyrocketxx (January 8, 2007)

This is a great album. Granted it's short, but it was only $6 when I bought it, and it was well worth it. I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of The Starting Line type pop-punk bands. I don't know who assigns cds to reviewers on this site, but they really need to match the reviewer with the type of music they are into. You can't have a metalcore fan review this album, the reviewer will think its horrible. I've seen these guys live as well, and I must say, they have a bright future in music. Hopefully they don't go the way of the Starting Line, you hear nothing about them anymore. Anyway, this cd is highly recommended for emo, pop-punk, screamo fans.

RockItNJ (September 27, 2006)

Look, I can understand why so many people would just pass this album up. It's your typical pop-punk album, cheesy lyrics, all that stuff. But the fact is, it's catchy, it's filled with energy that's par with the pop-punk youth scene of today....it's gonna sell, and it's probably gonna sell like CRAZY. And that's just the way it is. This is the kind of music a good portion of today's younger crowd is looking for, and i'm happy for them for being the ones to catch attention. They'll be playing alongside Thrice, Yellowcard, Sugarcult, Hellogoodbye, Jack's Mannequin, Dashboard Confessional and many other bands (at Left Bamboozle) we've all heard of of. And these kids are only 17. Be happy for them.

"All Time Low has the potential to be the next The Academy Is and Cartel" ~AbsolutePunk.net

Sure, it's just a review...but the numbers speak volumes:

Over 1 MILLION plays and 450,000 views on purevolume.com (over 6,000 plays yesterday, 9/26/06).

Look for them to make it big in the pop-punk scene. This CD's energy, although a bit off at times, is comparable to Fall Out Boy's "Take This To Your Grave".

Anonymous (September 23, 2006)

Incredible band...

Name a group of 17 year old kids who have ever made music sound this good.

One of the best of the year.

Anonymous (September 20, 2006)

rating's for blink 182. they will return...................

Anonymous (September 20, 2006)

Not bad, nothing new....Id take this over the new nfg cd anyday :)

Anonymous (September 19, 2006)

Here's what's wrong with this review - the Blink adulation. Doesn't the reviewer realize that his/her perspective on Blink is shaped by the time in their life when that record came out? If the reviewer was 4 years older, it would have been Green Day that brought them back to the good ol' days... Just goes to show that the music you love has a lot to do with when/where you were when you heard it. Because to a lot of us, Blink 182 never had anything to do with anything except being lame frat boys and going for obvious dicka nd fart jokes.

freaky003 (September 18, 2006)

This band is HORRIBLE. The minute and a half I could bare sounded just like Fall Out Boy.. which is equally HORRIBLE. Yea...

Anonymous (September 17, 2006)

best album of the year.

R3venge_Therapy (September 17, 2006)

The reason Blink 182 suck is the same reason Limp Bizkit or whoever sucks... It's not "changing to be cool" when the music is honestly no good. I see it as growing up. Holding on to bands that simply aren't good enough to stand the test of time isn't honorable, it's just pointless and annoying.

-William Marinovic

Wait, what? I don't see it as pointless and annoying in any way. Maybe you just don't know how to enjoy something catchy and goofy because you're too "grown up" or something. I think that's a shame.

Anonymous (September 15, 2006)

I love that the only adjective anyone can ever use to describe this insipid, vacant pop crap that's polluting the airwaves is "catchy." Go listen to Kelly Clarkson if that's the only requirement your music has to contain.

I don't remember who wrote "catchy" as their comment, and this isn't meant to be a direct attack on that person. It was more of a tangeant because I have some stupid, stupid friends who like some terrible fucking music. And, coincidentally, are in the some awful bands (ie. this one).

Cos (September 15, 2006)

I remember a time when Blink 182 was just another NOFX copy cat and everyone considered them punk for frat boys prepubescent girls. Oh how times have changed...

--Cos

Anonymous (September 15, 2006)

these guys are from my home state of md, that being said, they are terrible-oldpunker-

DarrenMcLeod (September 15, 2006)

"This band sounds like an exact cross between the Starting Line and Amber Pacific. No kidding."

I heard a lot of TTTYG-era Fall Out Boy too. Then again, I only listened to this disc once before tossing it aside.

crazytoledo (September 15, 2006)

Catchy.

Anonymous (September 15, 2006)

horrendous band

Mute98 (September 15, 2006)

almostpunkenough would agree when i say some of the more memorable pop punk bands in this vein (and more m odern) are in stereo and better luck next time

Anonymous (September 15, 2006)

Kursk (September 15, 2006)

what is hopeless doing, they had begun redeeming themselves with new AAA and Samiam records, The Human Abstract are good I don't care what anyone says, and a Mustard Plug album in the works that will most like ly come out on Hopeless. Come on Hopeless, stay on track, you've been doing good recently.

inagreendase (September 15, 2006)

This band sounds like an exact cross between the Starting Line and Amber Pacific. No kidding.