The Sound of America, Then and Now.

All Yours’s debut album takes a critical look at the country today in nostalgic pop-rock anthems.

Time seems to be running out on All Yours’s new, self-titled album.

Maybe it’s because the last few years, and especially recently, the clock seems to be ticking down for humanity. It’s no surprise, then, that songwriter Jason Ford Turner returns to the passage of time over and over again in his lyrics, ruminating on all-things past, present and future. You could say he’s a bit of a Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, as he becomes unstuck in time on topics like religion, death, a misspent youth, gun control and the possibility that he’s aching for a country that may no longer exist. 

Producer Nick Rucker (Plain White Ts) joins Turner to round out the band’s creative dynamic on 10 songs that blend 80’s synth anthems and 1990s post-grunge pop-rock. The album opens with “Eternal Life,” a track that asks what comes next after we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil. For Turner, he believes it continues and asks the listener to open their mind to that possibility, singing:

“I believe in eternal life. Believe in me, all we have is time. Remember my name, hold onto the flame, and you'll believe in eternal life.”

The songs religious tones are a thread Turner pulls across each song on the album both subtly and sometimes not. 

On songs like “Memory Lane,” a song dripping in nostalgia, “Ghost Story” and “Every Second/Every Moment,” the band channels bands like Better Than Ezra, Collective Soul and even Savage Garden. But on tracks like “WALLS” and “No More Guns,” a very direct argument on gun control that borrows an industrial drumbeat that could easily be found on Nine Inch Nails’ “The Downward Spiral,” the band sprinkles in the synth arrangements on Depeche Mode’s “Some Great Reward.”

But the track that stands out the most is “Survive in America,” a rallying cry for the disenfranchised of the modern era. Driving guitars swell like a stormy sea with drums that pound the shoreline of the chorus as Turner exclaims:

“I ain't your countryman. I don't have national pride. I got no country, I'm just doing what I can to get by. Out in our country, they're forcing families to run and hide. They got no country, they're just doing what they can to survive! Survive in America.”

It’s a song that pinpoints a moment in history which feels steeped in chaos, fear and uncertainty. It is one of the albums strongest tracks turning global angst into a fast-paced bombast that declares Turner is more than willing to fight in the present for a past he cherished as he moves toward a future that’s largely unwritten.

But as Turner tackles consciousness and politics in his lyrics, it’s just as important to remember sometimes we all need a bit of playful escapism to take us out of the present moment. All Yours does just that on “Battle Axe,” the album’s closer, which brings in the chugging guitar and high-squealing riffs reminiscent of bands like Dio and Iron Maiden. 

In total, the band’s nostalgic blend of genres and existentialism create a fast-paced and fun record that will take listeners back. It’s clear that Turner is a songwriter with a message and, with Rucker, can turn those words into catchy, earworm-inducing hooks that stay with you. Perhaps even infectious enough to cause real change and give Turner the future he hopes for.

Words by Craig Robert Brown