All Time Low get back to the Nothing Personal sound with their latest release Future Hearts. They have combined the best of their past two albums, taking the variety of sounds from Dirty Work and combining it with the pop-punk that we loved from Don’t Panic.
The opening track ‘Satellites’ has a raw sound we haven’t heard from the band before that echoes Frnk Iero andthe Cellabration. Alex Gaskarth’s voice, while sticking to his usual melodic pop-punk style, also has a rough quality, which matches the tone of this song brilliantly.
It seems at first that the next track is going to follow a similar vein, with some screamed vocals to start, of course this is appropriate given the title ‘Kicking & Screaming’. From here, though, the album truly launches into the fun, upbeat tunes we expect from All Time Low.
This vibe carries through the next few songs as the two singles come next. In true pop-punk style either of these tracks would get a party started, so turn them up loud and dance like no-ones watching.
‘Runaways’ is somewhat of an anthem, following a similar road to LostAlone, with a chorus very similar to their track ‘Hostages’. It does, however lead into some of the slower tracks of the record leading up to one of the more anticipated songs, ‘Tidal Waves’ featuring King Of Pop-Punk, Mark Hoppus. Hoppus takes command of the second verse, his voice blending perfectly into the song. While some have called this song the ‘Therapy’ of the album, it looses some of the passion being more heavily produced than its predecessor, but there’s no denying the emotion in Gaskarth’s voice in the last choruses.
We are then handed another great pop-punk tune with ‘Don’t You Go’, a track reminiscent of Good Charlotte’s ‘The Anthem’, an appropriate lead up to the next track which features Joel Madden. Madden’s vocal draws more similarity to Good Charlotte’s latest album Cardiology, slightly less punk and a little more pop but good nonetheless.
The closing track ‘Old Scars / Future Hearts’ opens with the same kind of riff as Nothing Personal’s ‘Weightless’ cementing the fact that All Time Low are really back to the band we love.
Overall, this album sounds like Nothing Personal’s big brother, with some more grown up production but the same mix of fun and emotional tracks. It feels like a natural progression for the bands career, taking everything they learnt over their past three releases and combining it into one great album.
