Something's Gotta Give The sixth studio album from pop-punk band All Time Low found them working with a ton of outside collaborators/writers and showcased a slick sound led by production from veteran producer John Feldmann. Future Hearts is now celebrating its tenth birthday today, and each of the 13 songs found on the record featured an outside writer on it. This type of collaboration was new to the band, as they had typically composed the majority of their material in-house. Future Hearts was one of All Time Low’s most successful LPs at launch date, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 upon its release and selling over 80,000 copies in its first week. The band took their major label misfire (2011’s Dirty Work) in stride and would quickly follow this up with Don’t Panic and their final Hopeless Records record in Future Hearts. While the band would reach their creative peak on 2020’s Wake Up Sunshine, Future Hearts is filled with a ton of great pop-punk tunes that deserve another look.
After the “call to arms” opener of “Satellite,” All Time Low quickly launch into “Kicking & Screaming” that features some breakneck drumming from Rian Dawson before Alex Gaskarth adds in the pre-chorus that, “I’m chasing after rock n’ roll.” It makes for a memorable opening statement on the LP, and sets a good tone for the direction they took on this album. Lead single, “Something’s Gotta Give”, still has that same punch that it did tens year ago, and the dramatic “oh’s” before each line in the chorus would later make for a great spot in All Time Low’s live performances. The bridge found on this single would foreshadow some of the band’s best material found on Wake Up Sunshine, and you can tell the band is re-gaining some of the confidence they may have lost from being dropped from a major label.
Other songs like “Kids in the Dark” still remain staples in the band’s live set to this day, while “Runaways” rounded out the great songwriting chops of Gaskarth and lead guitarist Jack Barakat, and accentuated the magic that happens when these two bandmates and friends come together. The jangly ballad of “Missing You” is a nice mid-tempo track that picks up steam as it gets going, while “Cinderblock Garden” adds in plenty of gang vocals to keep things interesting in the tracklisting. “Tidal Waves” would begin the professional partnership between Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth as they trade vocal parts here, and would blossom into their own band called Simple Creatures in 2019. The ballad is a nice track, and showcases the great harmonies that happen when Gaskarth/Hoppus croon together.
”Don’t You Go” features some bratty pop-punk, and finds Gaskarth singing with a bit of a sneer to his verses. Unfortunately, it mostly feels like a filler track before quickly bleeding into “Bail Me Out” that was co-written by Good Charlotte’s Madden brothers. The song has the same vibe as what is mostly found on The Madden Brothers’ 2014 LP, Greetings From California, and it sheds a little more light into the variety of song structures found on Future Hearts. “Dancing With A Wolf” features some atmospheric elements in the backing of the guitars, while “The Edge of Tonight” could’ve easily fit on All Time Low’s last effort of Tell Me I’m Alive. The closing punch of “Old Scars / Future Hearts” ends this chapter for the Towson, Maryland pop-punk band that is still playing many of these songs found on their sixth record to this day. All Time Low have since begun the process of “reclaiming” their older songs with The Forever Sessions Vol. 1 that features re-recordings of their earlier material. Time will tell to see if the band continues re-recording their past songs, or opts for launching into the next phase of their career with the proper follow up to Tell Me I’m Alive.