Move Along

Production

The All-American Rejects began writing new material for their second album in the fall of 2003, with the song "Dance Inside" being the first written and performed by the band during their then-current tour. After the end of their tour, the band's song writers Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler spent the majority of 2004 writing more new material in their homes in Destin, Florida. The album was influenced by Lit's A Place in the Sun (1999).

Production for the album in Burbank, California the following December, taking a majority of seven weeks to record. The songs recorded were then mixed in March 2005. "We were gone for a year and a half," says Ritter. "We were petrified. But now we feel like everything happened on this record, but so much more."

Release

The group went on tour in April and May with Armor for Sleep, and Hellogoodbye. The album's lead single "Dirty Little Secret" was released June 6, 2005. A music video followed its release on July 11. Move Along was released on July 12 through DGC, Doghouse, and Interscope. A music video was released for the title track on January 18. The title track was later released as the second single on February 27, 2006, but didn't chart until the following summer. From March to May, the group toured with Fall Out Boy on their North American arena tour, titled the Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour. In June and July, the band went on a tour of North America, with support from Damone. The band were forced to cancel the Canadian dates of this tour due to Ritter having vocal issues.

Also in July, "Top of the World" was released as a promotional single in the United States; a music video made up of videos and photographs taken by the band while on tour was released to help promote it. The group went on the 2005 edition of Warped Tour. A music video was released for "It Ends Tonight" on August 28. In September, the band went on a tour of the UK. On September 19, "It Ends Tonight" was released as the final single from Move Along. In October, went on a tour of American colleges with support from Ima Robot. From late October to mid December, the band went on the Tournado 2006 tour with support from the Format, Gym Class Heroes, the Starting Line and Motion City Soundtrack.

Critical reception

Move Along received positive reviews from music critics. Blender rated the album 3 out of 5 stars whilst Entertainment Weekly scored it a B+.

AbsolutePunk gave the album a 71% positive rating, reviewing with "The All-American Rejects have opted for a more direct rock and roll sound by somewhat changing their instrumentation and abandoning what made them so fun in the first place. Nevertheless, the band does sound very good: singer Tyson Ritter sounds better than ever, both in terms of melody as well in clarity of delivery, and the ridiculous production allows for each of the countless layers of guitars to shine through the extremely clear, yet thick sounding drums", while AllMusic commented "The All-American Rejects' effervescent 2003 hit "Swing Swing" sounded like a pop-punk adaptation of Better Than Ezra, and their sophomore effort makes this mix even more apparent", and that "The Rejects rock out a little on "Night Drive", "Dirty Little Secret", and "I'm Waiting"; the guitars crackle anxiously, and Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler's breathy harmonies soar like they mean it.

antiMusic gave it a score of four-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "These guys have got the art of the hook down so well that you have no choice but to submit to their wills."

IGN reviewed Move Along saying "[The album] is made for the masses, with each song as sexed up for the radio as the next. Full of isolation, break ups, and other run-of-the-mill pop topics, Move Along never really questions straying from the path." Prefix Magazine gave it a score of six out of ten, regarding the lyrics "too feel-good to be effective or memorable", but praised the track "11:11 P.M." as a "fast-moving song about last mistakes and other inoffensive high school diary entries, comes complete with fist-pumping chorus and ticking-clock sound effects."

Commercial performance

Move Along debuted at No. 6 on the US Billboard 200 with 90,000 first week sales. It spent 84 weeks inside the top 100 of the chart. The album was later certified 2x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for the shipment of 2 million copies. "Dirty Little Secret" peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as #4 on both the Pop 100 and Mainstream Top 40 charts respectively. "Move Along" charted at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top 10 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles Chart, "It Ends Tonight" reached a peak position of #8 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Top 40. By August 2006, the album had sold over 1,300,000 copies.

Track listing

All tracks written by Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter.