There’s always that one band you listen to in your early teen years that you never forget.

When I was 13, I discovered All Time Low and fell completely in love.

I usually like one or two songs by a band.  Four songs TOPS.

But All Time Low…they were different for me.

To date, they’ve recorded 4 albums and one EP.

The Party Scene (2005)

EP: Put Up or Shut Up (2006)

So Wrong, It’s Right (2007)

Nothing Personal (2009)

They also released a “Straight to DVD” album of a live concert in New York City in 2010, along with a full-length DVD about their lives backstage and on the road.

In 2011, they released their latest album Dirty Work.

The album cover was also released in red.

They are the only band I’ve ever listened to that I have liked every single song they’ve written.  Well almost every song, I’m not a huge fan of three songs.  But other than that, I love all their music.

Until Dirty Work came out.

One thing I thought was absolutely fabulous about All Time Low, was that they never used autotune, except for one song (a version of “Coffee Shop Soundtrack”) that was CLEARLY supposed to sound super strange and synthesized.

Their latest album featured autotune and it was much more… pop that they used to be.  The lyrics were still pretty dynamic and poetic.  But they took on a co-writer for some reason.

Their three original albums are absolutely brilliant.  The lyrics make me want to laugh out loud they’re so beautiful and strange and wonderful.  Frontman Alex Gaskarth is truly a spectacular composer and lyricist.  So I have faith in him and I’m sure their next album will be back to their original marvelous magic.

Anyway, I’ve loved the band for a long time.  The music is catchy and fresh without being too pop.

And Alex just has the most magnificent, smooth, gorgeous voice.

The first song I ever heard by them was “Dear Maria, Count Me In,” from So Wrong, It’s Right.

“I got your picture, I’m comin with you

Dear Maria, count me in

There’s a story at the bottom of this bottle

And I’m the pen.”

I went on to fall in love with Coffee Shop Soundtrack

“This wasted time on you has left me shaking in waiting

Shaking in waiting for something more…

The taste of your lips says we shouldn’t have met like this

I can keep a secret if you can keep me guessing

the flavor of your lips is enough to keep me pressing

For more than just a moment of truth between the lies told,

To pull ourselves away from the lives we leave back home

I can keep a secret if you can keep me guessing

The flavor of your lips is enough to keep me here

Keep me here.”

Really all the songs have amazing lyrics.  But the ones your should definitely check out are:

Dear Maria, Count Me In

Coffee Shop Soundtrack

Break Your Little Heart

Bad Enough for You

The Girl’s A Straight Up Hustler

Jasey Rae

Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal

Lost in Stereo

Lullabies

Painting Flowers

A Party Song

Remembering Sunday

Running from Lions

That Girl

Shameless

Six Feet Under the Stars

Stay Awake (Dreams Only Last for the Night)

Stella

Under a Paper Moon

Have fun!

“I took a walk for the very first time
On the dark side of the dance floor
Lit a match just to heat things up
But I got more than I bargained for

Mixed drinks, mixed feelings of elation
I should have known it was a one night invitation”

 —

“I`ve never told a lie,
and that makes me a liar,
I`ve never made a bet,
but we gamble with desire,
I`ve never lit a match,
with intent to start a fire,
but recently the flames
are getting out of control.
Call me a name,
Kill me with words,
Forget about me,
It`s what I deserve.
I was your chance,
to get out of this town,
but I ditched the car,
and left you to,”

 —

“Shake down on a Saturday
Sit back, gotta catch my breath
‘Cause every time I see her
I know she’s gonna take it back somehow

Tattoos and a switchblade attitude
Snakebite heart with a bubblegum smile
Sex in stereo, don’t turn the radio dial”

—

“Dead – Like a candle you burned out;
spill the wax over the spaces left in place of angry words.
Scream – To be heard, like you needed any more attention;
throw the bottle, break the door, and disappear.

Sing me to sleep, I`ll see you in my dreams,
waiting to say, “I miss you. I`m so sorry.”

 —

“I walk a fine line
Between the right and the real
They watch me closely but talk is cheap here
Like a weightless currency
Your words don’t mean shit to me
I’m always cashing out

Take me, show me
The corners of your empty room
The trouble we could get into
Just fake it for me
Disregard the footsteps
And we’ll never tell a soul”

 —

“I should have known better than to call you out
(On a night like this, night like this)
If not for you, I know I’d tear this place to the ground
(But I’m alright like this, alright like this)
I’m gonna roll the dice before you sober up and get gone
I’m always in over my head

Thames Street, I’ll take you out
Though I’m hardly worth your time
In the cold you look so fierce
But I’m warming up because the tension’s like a fire”

 —

“One more reason, I should never have met you
Just another reason I could never forget you
Down we go
The room’s spinning out of control

Lose myself in a chemical moment
The night life’s taking its toll
That’s just the way it goes
Come on, Stella, would you take me home?”

 —

“Hey, kid, you`ve got, a lot of potential
but I think its time to move up, so go on and blow us away with your sound;
Now you`re everything that we`ve come to love,
you taught us to move, so we`ll show it off,
just drop us the beat…

Here`s to the fast times; the times we felt alive;
to all the nights that we forgot to get back home.
Stay seventeen,
the party scene has got the best of me and you,
we`ve got to let this go…

Drink up last call before the sunrise sets the scene,
of empty bottles, heavy hearts,
the memories of broken dreams…
We were so tired yet so alive,
wrapped up in lies like sheets of another one night stand,
you know you left the girl with nothing but the,

Sunrise through the window pane, where tired eyes will close….
Stay seventeen, the party scene has got the best of me and you,
we`ve got to let this go…

I know she hopes I choke on this last drink,
drop dead before my influence gets to her head…
She said, “I`ll love you forever, or find something better.
It`s all just the same as when we sleep together.
We wake up with headaches, and trouble remembering
what went wrong…”

 —

“Baby, don’t yell
You’re tearing a hole right through the walls
Of everything we used to know
I’m building a place, something amazing
Just for the sake of saving us
From under the sun
Two plastic hearts with nowhere to run
We’re rolling the dice on whatever’s left
‘Cause God only knows that we could use the rest…

Baby, don’t fret
At least we’re alive with just enough breath
To truly despise the hills in the carpet
Knots in the ties that bind us so tightly to our waking lives
I’ll build up a house, I’ll build up an army
Of cellophane soldiers–cheap origami
To take back a piece of whatever’s left
Of that little box that beats in your chest.”