Danielle Burch
Entertainment Editor

Finally after over five years of waiting All Time Low has put out an album that isn’t a compilation of over produced pop-punk songs that are nothing but desperate to get on the radio.

Don’t Panic is a return home in a way for ATL. They have returned to the sound that originally sparked people’s interest in the band.
Fun pop-punk songs that are uncomplicated by the record industries need to have most hits.

This could be all thanks to the bands departure from their major record label deal with Interscope and their reunion with their original smaller independent label Hopeless.

This album in my opinion should have been the follow up to the 2007 release So Wrong, It’s Right. Hey we all make mistakes, but in ATL’s case they made two Nothing Personal and Dirty Work.

Nothing Personal had its shining moments of halfway decent songs but when it came to Dirty Work you could hear the desperation and need for attention in every last note.

That’s why when I heard the new ATL was making yet another album I groaned and felt a part of me just give up on ever hearing good music from a band I use to admire.

I saw the post on Tumblr and the reviews in music magazines that this was the album ATL has been hiding up their sleeve as the comeback of the decade. I still felt doubtful that anything could come from Don’t Panic, but one day I decided to take the plunge and give ATL one last chance before I discount them.

Halfway through the first song off of the album, The Reckless and the Brave, I felt nostalgic because the ATL I listened to almost every day in high school had finally returned.

Goodbye synthesizers, goodbye cookie cutter song lyrics, goodbye hardly recognizable vocals from Alex Gaskarth, and hello four guys from Baltimore who make music because it is fun and it is what they love to do.

It’s nice to finally have hope in a band that was once almost flushed down the toilet of bad music choices.
This album shines bright with upbeat and fun tracks like The Reckless and the Brave, For Baltimore, If These Sheets Were States, and So Long, and Thanks for All the Booze. These tracks are derivative of the sound that So Wrong had, but are clearly more grown up.

What I would consider the softer songs aren’t that soft at all. There isn’t any boy and his acoustic guitar moments in this album. What I mean by softer is more grown up lyrically and in sound as well. Outlines is a great example of this, it has a great progressive sound from what the band has done in the past.

There are a few songs off of Don’t Panic that are very reminiscent to earlier work by the band. For example So Long Soldier has very similar drum patterns to So Wrong’s The Beach.

I would recommend Don’t Panic to anyone that enjoys upbeat music that is fun to listen to and to all of the old ATL fans who have given up on them. Trust me it’s definitely worth a listen.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here