No, All Time Low’s EP “Put Up or Shut Up” is not technically an album, and yes, their debut studio effort “The Party Scene” shouldn’t be heard by anyone unless they’re too inebriated to remember it afterwards. Now that we’ve got all of that out of the way, we will start this sterling piece with a stat that may cause mouths to open wide but will definitely inspire you to say that they have more than one song not named “Dear Maria, Count Me In”: Towson, Maryland’s All Time Low has NINE full-length records that we are ranking worst to best, several EPs that aren’t “Put Up or Shut Up,” two live LPs, several non-album singles, and even one tribute to themselves record. In closing for our opening, New England Clam Chowder is much better than Maryland Crab Cakes with OR without tartar sauce.
9. The Party Scene (2005)
All Time Low formed in high school just after the Drive-Thru Records pop-punk boom was coming to a close in 2003, and released their debut full-length “The Party Scene” just two years later via Emerald Moon Records. While this one is a solid start for sure, especially given how young the band members were when they recorded it, it is BY FAR their worst record, and if you disagree, we question your brain or lack thereof whilst applauding you for trying so damn hard; good job. It says a lot that Hopeless Records picked this band up shortly after “The Party Scene” came out, and the band subsequently re-recorded five songs not in the form of a lullaby, almost half of this album, for their EP “Put Up or Shut Up”; the band’s a group of straight up hustlers.
Play it again: “Break Out! Break Out!” and then listen to the re-recorded version on “Put Up or Shut Up”
Skip it: “We Say Summer”
8. Last Young Renegade (2017)
The band’s seventh album “Last Young Renegade” is their SECOND major label debut, but first release via Fueled by Ramen. While the underrated and highly maligned “Dirty Work,” which we will get into later, but not much later, was the band’s sole LP with Interscope, the band left the conglomerate world after its release, and subsequently put out two bangers of albums back to back on Hopeless Records. Maybe this album fell short because it followed “Don’t Panic” and “Future Hearts,” or maybe it had the least amount of replay value for any ATL album not named “The Party Scene.” Thankfully it is a concise ten tracks and not thankfully it is good overall, but not great.
Play it again: “Last Young Renegade”
Skip it: “Nightmares”
7. Tell Me I’m Alive (2023)
All Time Low, released their NINTH album, the commanding “Tell Me I’m Alive,” in the year of our lord known as this year, 2023, and truly shows ZERO signs of stopping anytime soon, or, honestly, far from now. Actually, we won’t be shocked if they release at least nine more full-lengths over the course of the next twenty years and get even bigger than they are now. Suck it and calm down, haters. Back to their most recent LP, “Tell Me I’m Alive”: If you thought that “Last Young Renegade” was too pop for your hardcore tastes, this album is NOT for you, as it doubles down on the mainstream touches of said LP, but if you’re open-minded and live for saccharine melodies, this effort is a good one for your palate.
Play it again: “Modern Love”
Skip it: “Kill Ur Vibe” for its spelling would’ve been enough but the song would’ve also been better as a B-side
6. Wake Up, Sunshine (2020)
All Time Low’s eighth full-length studio album, and second of three thus far for Fueled by Ramen, is their best FBR release by more than a few meters, and one of the highlights of the early phase of the pandemic, which also featured Joe Exotic in all of his glory and splendor. This record is truly solid front to back, and even featured the band’s first number one on Billboard with “Monsters,” which stayed as such on the Alternative Airplay chart for EIGHTEEN weeks, making it Billboard’s biggest hit in the history of said chart. In addition, the song showcased that it had strong and firm legs with a re-release with pop icon Demi Lovato on vocals as well. It’s pretty sweet that eight albums and almost twenty years at the time in, ATL had their highest charting song.
Play it again: “Monsters” (featuring blackbear)
Skip it: “January Gloom (Seasons, Pt. 1)
5. Dirty Work (2011)
Your hate for this album might be partially justified for this record’s first single “I Feel Like Dancin’” but for not this album as a whole. Basically, we love us some Weezer, well at least albums #1 and #2 from the band, but the Rivers Cuomo-All Time Low co-write for “I Feel Like Dancin’” alienated more ATL fans than any other song up to that point, and epically failed at making them a mainstream act a la Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, which seemed to be why the band signed with Interscope Records to begin with. Thankfully, it didn’t end their career, as the band has released five more records since, and “Dirty Work” forever remains underrated with killer tracks like “Do You Want Me (Dead?),” “Just the Way I’m Not,” “Time-Bomb,” and our favorite, “Guts,” which features Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds.
Play it again: “Guts”
Skip it: “I Feel Like Dancin’”
4. So Wrong, It’s Right (2007)
Is it a coincidence that All Time Low’s top four records here are all Hopeless efforts? Go listen to “So Wrong, It’s Right,” in 2023, sixteen years after it came out, to hear the sound of youth gone wild. The band members themselves may not be as fond of this one as we are, but most bands dislike their breakouts in some way, shape, or form, and usually praise their newest efforts as their most superior, even when they are objectively and subjectively wrong. Fun fact: The band’s calling card single “Dear Maria, Count Me In” went platinum in 2015, and, even cooler, the entire album was certified Gold by the RIAA in May 2017.
Play it again: “Remembering Sunday” (featuring Juliet Simms then of Automatic Loveletter and currently of Lilith Czar)
Skip it: “Come One, Come All”
3. Future Hearts (2015)
All Time Low’s sixth album and last as of now (ya never know if they’ll go back kicking and screaming) for Hopeless Records is also their last non-major label ATL effort at this juncture. Debuting at number two on the Billboard 200, “Future Hearts” remains the band’s biggest week one and highest charting record in the states as well. In a sick sick sick flex, the album debuted at number one, yes, number one, in the United Kingdom, and eventually went Silver there, so the band is even bigger there than they are in the states. If you purchased a physical copy of the record, which was a rarity in 2015 and even more-so now, you were gifted Easter Eggs in the form of collector Polaroid pictures that will inspire a tidal wave of bottles, beats, wolves, and shit-eating grins… Don’t you go bitching!
Play it again: “Kids in the Dark”
Skip it: “The Edge Of Tonight”
2. Nothing Personal (2009)
If “So Wrong, It’s Right” elevated All Time Low to direct support status on a bill of five, “Nothing Personal” for sure made them capable headliners. Featuring and opening with their best single to date “Weightless,” ATL ripped through forty-one minutes and four seconds of diverse yet cohesive songs and their old fans (and new ones) ate ‘em up, just not as quickly as “Coffee Shop Soundtrack” from “Put Up or Shut Up”; you can’t please ‘em all, and ATL is damned regardless of whether or not the band will do ya. Also, it says a lot about “Nothing Personal” that the band still opens many shows with a non-single, track four, “Lost In Stereo” since 2009. If you’re an addict for dramatics, check out the re-recorded version of “Nothing Personal,” “It’s Still Nothing Personal – A Ten Year Tribute,” which came out, you guessed it, ten years after the original.
Play it again: “Weightless”
Skip it: “Hello, Brooklyn”
1. Don’t Panic (2012)
After the band’s fourth LP “Dirty Work” caused many of you foolish miscreants to write All Time Low off, the four-piece hunkered down, re-signed with Hopeless Records, started fresh, and made their best record “Don’t Panic”. This “no skip” studio album served as an eloquent and rockin’ return to form after a brief sabbatical on Interscope Records and showed that bands can still have successful careers after failing via a major. If you still find yourself hungry for more and thirsty for booze after “Don’t Panic,” check out the re-release “Don’t Panic: It’s Longer Now!” which came out just one year later with eight other tracks, and the highlight known as “A Love Like War” featuring Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil. In closing, we say so long and thanks for all the hate clicks.
Play it again: Front to back and then try “Don’t Panic: It’s Longer Now!”
Skip it: Panicking at or outside of the disco