Ranking Every Song on “Another Life”, Big Time Rush’s First Studio Album in Over a Decade

Article by Maddie Doolittle

It has been over a decade since the last studio album from Big Time Rush, a four-piece boy band formed for a Nickelodeon television show in 2009. After a seven-year hiatus, the band reconnected in 2021 with a slew of new singles and the 41-show “Forever Tour” in 2022. The band, composed of members Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos PenaVega, and Logan Henderson, finally released their highly anticipated fourth studio album Another Life on June 2, 2023, ahead of another headlining tour, the “Can’t Get Enough Tour.”

As expected, the first album released by a group in over ten years is bound to be experimental. Not only have the members grown as musicians and artists, but the landscape of popular music has changed drastically since they last crafted a body of work. Big Time Rush’s Another Life would definitely fit the description of “experimental,” for better and for worse. The album relies heavily on maximalist production paired with strong harmonies and too many vocal effects to tally. We’re going to give you a master list of which songs have lived up to the decade-long hype and which ones are doing too much.

Tracklist:

1. Can’t Get Enough
2. Waves
3. I Just Want To (Party All the Time)
4. Weekends
5. Work For It
6. Forget You Now
7. Brand New
8. Ask You Tonight
9. Superstitious
10. Another Life

10. I Just Want To (Party All the Time)
Aside from some cool building harmonies in the pre-chorus, this song is pretty underwhelming. With just two verses, a pre-chorus, and a chorus, “I Just Want To (Party All the Time)” actually sounds like a song that could have been written for the TV show in 2010 and was revamped with a random saxophone solo at the end to make it sound more mature. It’s a miss for us.

Worst Lyric: “So I’ll let it ride / Till I cash out / Or pass out / Either way I’ll be down for the next round”
Score: 5.0/10

9. Work For It
The song starts unsuspectingly with some interesting production elements and a relaxed pre-chorus. Then we hit the chorus and we unknowingly entered a video game with an instrumental that makes it feel like we’re playing Geometry Dash in the fifth grade again. Combine this with the dramatic vocoder and other sound effects laced throughout the background and you get a song that sounds like an Xbox game.

Worst Lyric: “I’ma work for it / Gettin’ down and dirty ‘cause I work for it”
Score: 5.4/10

8. Forget You Now
The production in the beginning of this song only reminds me of the Labrinth and Zendaya track “All For Us” from the Euphoria soundtrack. For this reason, it is possible that the Big Time Rush vocals sound forced over the instrumental paired with heavy electronic drums. The song falls into the same trap as a lot of songs on the lower half of this list with an extremely repetitive chorus and uninventive lyrics. While the song isn’t necessarily bad, it certainly isn’t better than a lot of the other tracks on the record.

Worst Lyric: Any of the 39 times they say “can’t forget” in any capacity
Score: 5.9/10

7. Another Life
The album’s namesake and final track, “Another Life” wraps up the record with a message about living life to the fullest and taking risks. Where the track falls short is the lack of any sort of release later on in the song. On an album full of maximalist production, this track felt almost as if it was missing something. That something could be the absence of a bridge and final chorus, which would’ve provided the song with a more holistic feel and a more satisfying conclusion. Overall a nice song, it just needed more.

Best Lyric: “They don’t remember you for chances that you don’t take”
Score: 6.2/10

6. Superstitious
Thanks to Stevie Wonder, this song will never be at the top of any search results, but it is unique in its own right. Looking past a few vocoder-drenched adlibs, the song has a catchy chorus with some cool instrumentation. It’s one of the only tracks on the record that feels complete with more than just a couple of verses and a repetitive chorus. The resemblance to the 2017 record Future Friends released by Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi under the duo Superfruit is uncanny with the crisp harmonies in the chorus; it would be shocking if they didn’t draw some inspiration from the acapella veterans.

Best Lyric: “We can run away for the hell of it / My name on your lips is adrenaline”
Score: 6.5/10

5. Weekends
A straightforward song with lyrics about the frustrations of getting ghosted, “Weekends” provides a good song between a couple not-so-good songs. The production is minimal in comparison to the other tracks with a traditional pop song structure. While there’s nothing outstanding about the track, it’s a more low-key song that could find some success as a single, similar to the Jonas Brothers’ success with “Leave Before You Love Me” with Marshmello.

Best Lyric: “It’s funny how every word I ate / Made my stomach ache / Was it all for nothing?”
Score: 6.7/10

3. Ask You Tonight
One of the only ballad-type songs on the record, “Ask You Tonight” highlights each members’ vocals while describing the feeling of certainty when asking their partner to marry them (even though the song never explicitly mentions marriage). Carlos and Logan’s vocals especially shine through on this track, and accompanied by a more relaxed production style, this song earns a spot in the album’s top five.

Best Lyric: “I know you’re the one / No more searching for the better half of me”
Score: 7.2/10

3. Can’t Get Enough
A great choice of song to open the album, “Can’t Get Enough” is upbeat and is reminiscent of 2010s summer jams by the likes of John Newman, Calvin Harris, and Max Martin. It provides the perfect glimpse into the band’s new sound ahead of the remainder of the album, and it makes total sense that the song was one of just a few new tracks to make the 2023 tour setlist.

Best Lyric: “I swear it’s like the stars aligned / Pointed straight to you”
Score: 7.3/10

2. Brand New
The production in this song paired with the dreamy vocals were able to build to a peak in the song when the other tracks simply fell short. The transition between the chorus and the post-chorus where the harmonies continue to build as the track progresses is the highlight of the song. Lyrically, “Brand New” feels very intentional with the message it’s portraying as opposed to a couple tracks that feel cookie-cutter and generic (a trap many boy bands fall into when you have four individual life experiences coming together to perform one body of work). This one is definitely a must-add for any playlist with the words “chill pop” in the title.

Best Lyric: “Everyone before you lost me / But you’re the only one who saw me”
Score: 7.6/10

1. Waves
The intro is interesting to say the least, I know. Beyond that, this song has some of the most cohesive and catchy production of the entire album. A trap that many groups fall into is taking turns singing parts of the song solo (i.e. Carlos sings first verse, James chorus, Logan bridge, etc.). This song is a great example of Big Time Rush utilizing all four voices, making it so this song couldn’t be performed by just one person. “Waves” is a perfectly up-tempo track with satisfying builds and drops as well as a well placed lyric: “gimme that, gimme that, gimme that rush” (very pun-ny). Hoping to see the song earn a permanent slot on the 2023 setlist because it would undoubtedly be a big time crowd pleaser.

Best Lyric: “You got what I’ve been missing / I see myself in your eyes, eyes / Let’s make waves”
Score: 7.9/10

Overall Album Score: 6.5/10