Review: The All-American Rejects – Move Along

”When all you got to keep is strong / Move along, move along like I know ya do / And even when your hope is gone / Move along, move along just to make it through.” Simple lyrics, but immediately impactful from The All-American Rejects on their sophomore smash of a record called Move Along. The band found an immediate spark in their songwriting under the careful tutelage of veteran producer Howard Benson, recorded by Mike Plotnikoff, and mixed by a “living legend” in Chris Lord-Alge, AAR struck gold…rather platinum (x3). This was the first album to feature guitarist Mike Kennerty and drummer Chris Gaylor, while the band’s self-titled debut was a two-piece effort between Tyson Ritter (vocals/bass) and Nick Wheeler (guitars/keyboards/programming). Looking back today on the record that changed The All-American Rejects commercial prospects for the foreseeable future is a fun task. The album spawned three singles in the infectious guitar pop of “Dirty Little Secret”, the timeless title track, and the piano-laced ballad of “It Ends Tonight.” The band has found an entirely new shelf life to Move Along, and their entire discography, by self-promoting impromptu house parties to begin the next phase of the band.

Adam Grundy Sep 4, 2023

My first impressions of The All-American Rejects, and their pop-centered rock, were generally favorable. The band stormed onto the scene with their charming first single, “Swing, Swing,” that carefully swayed from swooning falsetto vocals, from frontman Tyson Ritter, to a more lush tenor sound with ease. The single seemed to be played everywhere from baseball games, to grocery stores, and it was undeniably catchy. Their self-titled LP was produced by Tim O’Heir (The Starting Line, Say Anything) and he does a nice job of accentuating the best parts of the band on this fairly straight-forward collection of songs. A little know fact about the debut is that when the album was recorded, Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler were the only two band members, and it was until the band would shoot their video for their debut single that they would add Mike Kennerty on rhythm guitar and Chris Gaylor on drums. This lineup is still intact to this day, and The All-American Rejects would see even greater success with their sophomore album, Move Along. The All-American Rejects would go on to sell a million copies in the United States, and solidify the band as a marquee name in the pop-rock realm for the foreseeable future. The album was recently reissued on a “Ghostly Green” vinyl that includes a bonus 7″ vinyl on “Coke Bottle Green” to further celebrate the 20+ years that have passed since this record came out.

AbsolutePunk Nov 21, 2005

One doesn’t exactly get scene points for listening to The All-American Rejects—with a loathsome, snot-nosed, teenybopper fan base ruining any semblance of “cred” the band might have built up before their sudden mainstream success, along with the sneers of contemptuous music elitists further exacerbating the problem, it’s easy to see why it may not be “cool” to openly like The All-American Rejects. I, however, don’t give a shit. Playing a brand of infectiously catchy, well written modern pop on their self-titled debut, The All-American Rejects exploded onto the MTV scene in 2003 with their falsetto-filled, harmony-saturated “Swing, Swing,” a song bemoaning the recollections of a former love. After a relatively lengthy wait of nearly three years, The All-American Rejects have returned with their highly anticipated Move Along, an album that falls short of extremely high expectations, but delivers just enough to keep dedicated fans (and the record label) happy.