... that All Time Low has matured---and they wrap it in a good way.
Since 2000s times are dawned, many passionate fans of All Time Low have, so to say, petitioned them to come back to where they used to be---as well as I. Well, we actually can't change our loved ones' decision, can we? Unless they said they've had enough. After Last Young Renegade---even in their short, separating "break"---one of Baltimore's icons, via Rian Dawson, have reinstated that they'd rather go back to bloom what they used to grow.
"What I didn't count on was missing the guys so much," he started talking to ALTPRESS. "You're not away with them for more than a couple (of) weeks; even more. That's when I realized, 'Wow, I miss these guys when I'm not with them'. We're very fortunate to have been 17 years together."
I personally believe Rian. Then comes Wake Up, Sunshine today. Three years isn't All Time Low's usual juncture between their albums, but the wait is paid off. He doesn't lie to us fans though about reminiscing the good ol' days; Alex (Gaskarth, guitar,vocal), Jack (Barakat, guitar), Zack (Merrick, bass) and he secretly fine-tuned Some Kind of Disaster, their first single in this album, behind us in his studio in Nashville! Alex is quite ecstatic yet nervous about this. "...It felt like throwing it back to the days of So Wrong, It's Right and Nothing Personal -- not musically, but in the process," he told DontBoreUs. "I've got to say that my favourite memory was that it just felt like summer camp. It was all four of us and our producer living in this big house with a studio in it. It wasn't a professional studio, it was a studio we threw together using Zack's [Merrick, bass] gear. It felt really down and dirty and DIY. I think that was really good for the soul." added him. The rest of album process and result is history.
The first six songs of Wake Up, Sunshine do feel as if they were Nothing Personal and/or So Wrong, It's Right unreleased materials. All Time Low seem to dig them from their adolescent vault even though facts state opposite. The songs are extremely fresh and---without doubt---make some of their remarkable great lyrics-writing. For instance, "Melancholy kaleidoscope, it's alright/ Can't be 100 if you're only giving 95" in Melancholy Kaleidoscope or "We don't sleep/ But we like sleeping in" in Sleeping In.
The next nine songs blow my mind. Alex and co. expand and explore in a way more settled way than they're expected. I mean, look at rap-inspired rhythm in Monsters (feat. blackbear). Or the catchy beat in Pretty Venom (Interlude). Or "Are we looking to the same stars?" in-distance-feeling song of Favorite Place (feat. the Band CAMINO). Or knotted, same themed of January Gloom (Season, Pt. 1) and Summer Daze (Pt. 2). Or Glitter & Crimson which is surprisingly epic. Or extravagant closing in Basement Noise, affirming their roots of DIY spirit and gripping it ever since. Yeah, they've carried out pour-and-mix style these days, only this is now better. Bolding the statement, Alex admits it. "The first six songs, in my opinion, are very much a reintroduction to all the things people know about All Time Low already, and then I think the second half of the album takes us to a lot of new places."
In Wake Up, Sunshine, All Time Low has fully blossomed. We have to concede, not condemn, it. They've gone this far to be this ripe. They don't delay this album's release date; even add three additional singles---more than they're supposed to do---amidst of COVID-19's stressful pandemic in order to give their dedicated fans a music to cheer up. They don't lie as well in this second attempt of promises. They're in summer mood, and so do we have to act accordingly.
However, if everything seems perfect, do we have to see the end? At least, Alex hasn't thought so. Hiatus is not really on his mind right now. "Not really, to be honest. I feel like a lot of hiatuses come about when either there's a big life change, like kids, and none of us have reached that point yet," he stated to NYLON. On the main reason most bands take hiatus, he replied, "We've been lucky, because that's really never happened to us. We remain really close and not at each other's throats through any of this. We've just been happy to continue putting out music and touring. It's our entire existence."
Now it comes to my mind that All Time Low may end up like Yellowcard; releasing an album so excellent that it feels like a conclusion, and all of sudden announcing a goodbye. I hope it's just bad thoughts, but again; we have to accept that they've matured. Thank God they wrap it in a good way.*
MAM
