Music Monday #4: Move Along by The All-American Rejects

"Let me know that I've done wrong, when I've known this all along, I go around a time or two, just to waste my time with you, tell me all that you've thrown away, find out games you don't wanna play, you are the only one that needs to know, I'll keep you my dirty little secret, don't tell anyone, or you'll be just another regret, my dirty little secret"
- 'Dirty Little Secret' - The All-American Rejects

'Move Along' by The All-American Rejects was released in 2005 but I didn't become aware of it until later in 2006.  When I first started University as with most people I got to know some of my new friends through their music taste, one girl in particular had a music library with a wealth of music I had never heard before and I jumped right in and I went deep.  'Dirty Little Secret' is the first track on this album and right away I was hooked, not just because I loved their style of music but also because of the lyrics and what they meant to me.  There are two guys for me that this song would come to be associated with, the sweet irony here is that around the time the album was released I was having a "thing" with a closeted gay guy that I wouldn't call a relationship - I've touched on this before, but for the sake of clarity, I've never been in anything I'd officially class as a relationship but I've been in more than a few "It's complicated" arrangements.  Despite the fact that the closet case experience didn't lead anywhere, the song still reminds me of him, and of the other guy that during my time at University I crushed on so hard but sadly nothing ever happened, he was straight and I don't chase straight boys.

The title track of the album 'Move Along' is equally as poignant for me, a reminder not to linger on things you can't have and move along, keep moving.  The lyrics aren't really about moving on from anything in particular but rather about the need to keep moving, even when you feel your weakest you need to keep moving.  An honourable mention goes out to their self titled album, and 'When The World Comes Down' both of which I liked but Move along still holds a special place in my heart not only for the two guys those songs remind me of but also for the bond I forged with the girl who introduced me to their music, she'll get another mention in this list as her music collection opened up a whole world to me I hadn't explored before - just as a side note here, prior to University I never had broadband internet, and the only internet access we had at home had been for a year before we moved house we never bothered getting it again after moving, it was a lot harder to discover new music back then, there were no streaming services, and with dialup internet to download an album could literally take hours - in particular when Windows Media Player 9 was released in 2003 I remember the download taking half an hour just for the player.

This theme of others serving as curators that introduce me to music that I then go off and explore is something that will appear time and again, I consider myself very open minded when it comes to music, I will try almost anything you want me to listen to and tell you what I think, whatever I like I go off and explore and find more of it.  Curators served a much greater purpose back then, and even today despite having algorithms in streaming services to suggest music to you, a human ear still makes connections that machine learning doesn't.  I don't think Spotify would suggest Marilyn Manson to someone who likes Vengaboys but there you go, taste in music can be odd.

Dirty Little Secret remains my favourite track by All-American Rejects and I still smile every time it plays, I can't help that, it's akin to Pavlov's Bell.