I said this when I reviewed their EP and I shall say it again – the world only needs one All Time Low. I’m a big fan of this genre of music, but let’s face it, there are millions of bands peddling pop music with spiky riffs and double-quick drums and if you’re going to cut the mustard you need to be ultra catchy, ultra slick and a lot of fun. ‘Off The Deep End’ is one of those things – slick. It’s not the other two.
‘Stupid Love Letter’ could be a Metro Station song. And that’s cool, I don’t mind bands who go for that end of the pop-punk spectrum, but if that’s the way you want to go then you have to be consistently good. ‘Off The Deep End’ is more miss than hit and that makes it a very difficult record to enjoy. As I said, I enjoy bands who are quite happy to write pop songs but you’ve got to have super catchy choruses in abundance. This band just don’t have strong enough songwriting abilities and end up relying on layers of guitars and computer-derived drum beats to get things going. ‘Suicide Sunday’ sounds a bit like Relient K and is a highlight, but for every good song there’s a schmaltzy number like ‘Finding Me Out’ or cheese like ‘How I Met Your Mother’, which actually sounds like Busted would sound had they been introduced to garageband’s loops and samples.
I’m sure the pre-teens will love this band but I’m not sold at all. It’s too disposable, not catchy enough and way, way too well=produced. A classic example of style over substance. One to give a wide berth…