All Time Low - Once In A Lifetime

On Wednesday, All Time Low released their surprise new song ‘Once In A Lifetime’. I knew the band had been working on some new songs but I was definitely not expecting to hear anything new this soon after the release of their incredible album ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ that was released just shy of a year ago now.

I fell in love with this song instantly. It just has this great summer-y feeling about it that took me straight back to being in the 2019 Slam Dunk festival crowd watching the band headline, I can’t wait to see this one being performed live. It has some incredible production and the familiarity of recent All Time Low releases and for me this song really feels like an amalgamation between the albums 'Last Young Renegade' and 'Wake Up, Sunshine' which is something I love as both of those albums are incredible and I love the themes that run through them. For that reason it also reminds me of ‘Everything Is Fine’ and ‘Birthday’ that were singles released in between these albums.

In an interview with Rocksound, frontman Alex Gaskarth said that due to the pandemic and not being able to tour the band decided to keep writing music after last years release, though they are not sure yet if this will become an album or just some songs like ‘Birthday’. Either way, I’m happy that the band have decided to release this song, just in time for the summer.

The song plays on the theme of ‘Once In A Lifetime’ being a negative concept, which is something that I’ve not really seen being explored before as we usually associate ‘once in a lifetime’ with being an amazing opportunity or something like winning the lottery. Even though the song sounds upbeat and fun, lyrically it’s about hitting an ‘all time low’ and wanting to get out of that place.

The band even mention that in the song, with Gaskarth explaining the double meaning being name dropping themselves in their song, “it just sort of happened to fit with the vibe of the lyrics, and what we were talking about, and how All Time Low for us as a band has been a saving grace for all of us through all of this and through all of the loss we have encountered. One of the things that kind of kept us afloat and feeling okay was the band, and so the line ‘till I hit an all time low’ means so many different things, in so many ways in the context of this song. There’s the face value, you hit rock bottom, but then there’s this internal meta story about me finding my place in All Time Low and that feeling like a safe and secure net for me. So I thought there was something really interesting in that dynamic, and I wrote it in, and then remember thinking ‘is it okay to do this?’”

You can hear more of what Alex Gaskarth had to say about the song in Rocksound’s interview here.

I think the production on this song is so good, and again we have Zakk Cervini and Andrew Goldstein to thank for that. The band worked with Cervini on Wake Up, Sunshine and I love the work he did there as well, and they wrote Monsters with Goldstein so I guess it was kind of a no brainer to work with the two of them together for this song, which has really payed off.

The vocals sound incredible and that’s what drew me in, but everything works together seamlessly and I love the fun rhythm of in the song. I think Zack Merrick and Rian Dawson have done an incredible job there as always. I also think the layers of guitars in the chorus work well and help to drive the song and make the listener want to get up and dance around.

‘Once In A Lifetime’ is a classic All Time Low song with modern production and the band being tighter than ever, it’s a must hear song for the summer that will be on repeat for me. It feels nostalgic and new at the same time, and I hope we get to hear more from the band over the next few months, but I am still happy to be listening to ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ and pretending I’m at a gig. But seriously, give this one a listen, it’s worth it.

Until next time…

Listen to Once In A Lifetime on Spotify here.

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