King Kong For a band that’s been fairly quiet for the past decade and a half, The All-American Rejects stormed back onto the scene pretty significantly with a DIY approach to the music business, and their viral pop-up house party concerts put them squarely back in the spotlight. Sandbox is the fifth studio album from the band, and their first new album in 14 years, that was capped off with 2012’s Kids In The Street. This record was produced by AAR band members Tyson Ritter & Nick Wheeler, with additional production credits from Scott Chesak. If you’re expecting big hooks and loud guitars, much like was found on Move Along and When The World Comes Down, you might be a little disappointed in the music found on Sandbox. For fans who have stuck around with AAR for this long, Sandbox isn’t as jarring of a listening experience as one would think. Instead, the band’s independent approach comes across as an artist comfortable in their own skin, and one who are still willing to take some risks to further their development.
”Easy Come, Easy Go” starts off Sandbox with a great indie rock guitar riff, while the subdued back and forth vocals between Ritter and his bandmates recall the early days of the band looking for a spot in the crowded indie punk/power pop scene. Ritter opens with, “I cut you out, don’t be so typical / Putting my tap shoes on like eggshells when I dance around you / So work it out, why be so difficult? / I’m pouring salt around the cemetery, licking my wounds,” to bring the listener into his state of mind and invite them to explore this latest chapter of The All-American Rejects. “Get This” has some unique starts and stops to the beat early on, and as the song unfolds, it bleeds into a bass-heavy chorus of, “Get this , so get this / I put you on my wish list / I drew a star right by your name / You’re always in the top drawer / I won’t be a loner anymore / ‘Cause it’s never always the same / So get this.”
”Search Party!” is a more subdued version of AAR, and Ritter bellows over the mix of drums, bass, and clean guitars with the odd pre-chorus of, “You’re sitting there like a troll / Eating a dead man’s bones.” For a band that is known for their anthemic and emotive choruses, this one took me a little bit to get used to. “Eggshell Tap Dancer” gets its name from the first verse of “Easy Come, Easy Go” and the band explore this same vein with some drowned out guitars and a more somber approach to the vocals. It’s almost as if AAR were comfortable in staying in this type of groove on this LP and they’re trying to see where it would take them through the darkest of thoughts and concepts.
The acoustic ballad of “Green Isn’t Yellow” finds Ritter explaining his youth by singing, “Twelve-year old me in the back bench / Just learning how to pray / I once heard someone say, / ‘Green isn’t yellow / So, go ahead or run away / Sometimes, just a little blue will get you brave.'” The song bounces along with a steady groove and does a commendable job of breaking up the electric guitar parts that dominate Sandbox in the early stages. The title track comes up next in the sequencing, and it finds Ritter trying to make sense of senseless violence and wars, as he sings, “The sandbox is thirsty / Outside, the bombs are bursting / Bang / Bang.” The song begins to pick up steam after the first chorus, and Ritter and Nick Wheeler’s years of playing music together continues their dynamic and undeniable chemistry.
”King Kong” is a late-album standout, and it made perfect sense to release this track as one of the singles from Sandbox. It’s one of the most easily accessible songs on the record, features a great beat from drummer Chris Gaylor, and recalls the glory days of when AAR was dominating the pop rock radio airwaves. The repetitious bridge of, “Cutting my hair, changing my name / Packing my bags, moving out of state / Now you’re shaking, shaking in my shackles / Listening to it rattle, playing me like King Kong,” has a great rhythm to it, and accelerates the single to the finish line logically. “Clothesline” rocks like an Arctic Monkeys-type of indie rock track with the higher register vocals in the chorus of, “You left me hanging on a clothesline / Ooh, and I’m just whipping the wind / When you’re standing on a land mine / Wait for the explosion.” The song also features a pulsating bassline throughout from Ritter, and he gets just the right tone out his instrument to make for a meaningful track.
”Lemonade” features an eclectic first verse that finds Ritter explaining how the most trivial things mean more to some people than relationships as he mentions, “Buying all the things that I never could afford / Air Force Ones got me flying out the door / I don’t know where I’m going, don’t care anymore.” This care-free attitude is infectious, and Ritter does a nice job of making the listener a believer in his ethos. “For Mama” is a somber ballad about losing a parent, as Ritter croons, “From a son to a mother / From a son to his mother / I can’t fix you, I sure miss you,” over some distant trumpet playing that recalls an ode to bands like American Football. You can feel the pain in Ritter’s vocals and it makes for an emotional moment in the set.
”Staring Back At Me” is the album closer of Sandbox, and it finds Ritter shouting in a cathartic manner on the chorus, “How can I be free / With the sun staring back at me?” The song has an eerie feeling to it, and it leaves the audience wondering where The All-American Rejects can go next with no record label forcing them to release a “hit” or to change their sound to something other than the music they feel like creating. That must be a liberating feeling for the band at this stage of their career, and they have made a record worthy of their legacy and proved that digging in the Sandbox for new ideas isn’t a lost artform.