Written by Ella Roberts
All American Rejects kept their latest album, ‘Sandbox’, a dirty little secret, for almost 14 years. During their decade long hiatus, the band took time to ‘relax and regroup’, choosing to believe they had no more music to contribute at the time. 2025 came with a longing and rising obsession for the 2010s era, low-rise jeans are available at every local shopping centre, tramp stamps are cool, and the side parts back. Whilst teens slammed Taylor and Sabrina, ‘punk-rock’ was catapulted back into the spotlight. Bands like Wheatus, Muse and 5 seconds of summer became the background for aesthetic edits, and worked their way onto fans playlists, with All American Rejects ‘Dirty Little Secret’ defining the genre. The band seized their opportunity to perform a covert ‘backyard tour’ in frat houses across America, ‘To get back to where we started’, according to singer ‘Ritter’, as they slowly began to promote their album.
The album kicks off with ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’, beginning plainly melancholy with a stripped back acoustic guitar. As the verse progresses, the base jumps in, deepening the simple riff for Ritter’s electric ‘You only love me when I’m out on the road’, chorus. The song exudes teen angst and anarchy, All American Rejects proving age is yet to define their groove.
The title track ‘Sandbox’ begins with youthful idioms of ‘pigtails and ‘bullseye’ contrasted by images of war, with ‘smoky skies’ and ‘camo green’ through husky vocals. As always, the band refuses to shy away from political statements, with ‘Sandbox’ serving as a protest, highlighting societies complicity with war, and its effect on childhood. The musical simplicity of the song perfectly underscores the bands crucial message, delivered through the simplistic yet weighted lyrics.
The albums single ‘Search Party’, was a highly anticipated release, following the bands live performance from ‘Medium-Sized Backyard’. The song can only be categorised as 2000s emo, with its apathetic vocals, solemn guitars and indistinguishable lyrics. Whilst the song appears unremarkable, ‘Search Party’ was acclaimed by fans and critics, along with the albums first music video. All American Rejects described the video as a mix between Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto, with the band members walking the streets of Los Angeles, in a video game-esq sequence, whilst a studio session plays alongside. The song, along with the rest of the album encapsulates the horror genre, with covert metaphors of violence and haunting riffs.
Ultimately, whilst the album is, in fact, classic All-American Rejects, newer fans of the band remain disappointed, following their 5 minutes of fame, as it strays far from hits like ‘Gives You Hell’. Despite that, older fans were delighted with the album and thrilled by the bands return as they stuck to their ‘punk rock’ roots.
