I don’t know why I’m doing this review other than to reminisce a little about my father. The one thing that I’ve learned the most from doing music reviews and being a music critic for teamhellions.com is how to be critically honest with the material. However, there are a select few bands that will always obstruct me from that for various reasons. The All-American Rejects is one of them. Most people get  to know their fathers by the time they are my age, unfortunately, through a set of circumstances, I was unable to do that. So then it led me to think, well what do I have left, and before I became critical of music, it’s that music that my father and I shared a love for that keeps me hanging on to him.

If I had to describe The Rejects on this album, it would be as the alternative rock version of Nickelback. Their music is tested for arenas, it’s above average, if only slightly, and caters to a very different crowd than I’m used to. If you go into this album with the expectation that it will suck, then you know what? It will suck. I’ll admit, this is not the best album that the band has put out to date (Nothing will ever top Move Along; set the bar way too high with that one), and for me, this album caries a set of memories I can’t let go of. Is that a bad thing? I hope not, but by all means hold it against me.

On Kids in the Street, the band reject most of their back catalog, especially their self-titled debut and focus more on pop with a really big sound. The music is more focused and adds a few more musical elements, like synths, great backing vocals from the band and just better musicianship from the band all around. To be honest, I can’t say much more about the music here, and I don’t want to. It’s something that I can’t speak completely honestly about, to justify doing it.

There is a lyric in the Eric Church track “Springsteen” that rings true here for me. “Funny how the melody sounds like a memory;” it expresses a feeling I have for certain bands that most people hate or can’t see why they’re good. Whenever I hear Dave Matthews Band, I will always remember how they were the first band I fell in love with. When I hear Widespread Panic, it’s always going to remind me of a job that I used have and loved. The All-American Rejects are going to be one of those bands that reminds me of my dad, and if that means being biased for this band, so be it. Rip me apart if you’d like in the comments below.

Album Rating: Too personal to rate.