Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret

Fact: the very first concert I ever went to was by the All-American Rejects. I didn't really have any idea who they were at the time, but I enjoyed it and my curiosity was piqued afterwards (though I think my main impression leaving it was "wow, Tyson Ritter is ridiculously skinny"). "Dirty Little Secret," the lead single for their second album, was released in 2005 and seemingly took forever to get popular; I didn't really mind, though, because the long drawn out process of picking up radio and video play provided lots of opportunities for me to annoy people by saying "ooo, I love this song!" and turning up the volume literally every time it came on. What can I say? It's rare that I song I love takes off in the U.S., so I had to take advantage of the opportunity while I had it.

Dirty Little Secret--yes, this is a guitarry song. Unlike many of their other singles (which I like as well, let me say), though, I think it has a strong pop core. The guitars here are focused instead of just creating this fuzzy background of noise (something which a lot of bands do that I can't stand); that's almost always a must in terms of winning me over. There's no time for messing about with rambling guitar solos or just playing for the sake of noise--everything here is sharp, crisp, completely in the service of hooking you in. Everything from those opening strikes of the guitar to that verse crescendoing into the catchy chorus to how the guitars drop out and become more sparse and staccato-like going into the following verse to the whole middle 8/middle section (strong, moving into a half-shout, quick guitar break, quiet repeat of the chorus and then explosion into that great chorus again--love it all; I think this whole middle section may be my favorite part) is designed to draw you in, and it does. Upbeat, too, just the way I like it. With music and vocal parts that are both strongly catchy, this song was irresistible from the first time I heard it, and it's still one of my favorite driving and "shout along with" songs.

To buy the All-American Rejects' second album, Move Along (the title track and second single is truly fantastic), go here (physical) or here (digital). If you're looking for something else in this sort of poppy vein, though, I'd also recommend at least getting "Swing Swing" from their self-titled debut album.

Next up: maybe something British or Swedish.