Full Review: Taking Back Sunday – New Again

Who do you compare a genre defining band like Taking Back Sunday to when they’re the ones putting out new music? I know in the past I had gotten tired of reading (or writing) how up and coming copy cats just didn’t measure up to Taking Back Sunday’s fresh new style. Fast forward to the present day when the band has put out numerous records and progressively headed downwards on the popularity scale. ‘New Again’ doesn’t resurrect the band to their former glory days but it doesn’t throw the dirt on the coffin either.

Taking Back Sunday has such as history with different band members and drama that it’s hard not to get caught up in that and miss the actual music. So when the first song starts with fuzzy guitars and pounding drums you almost don’t know what to think of it until the chorus kicks in. It’s at that point that you can almost hear the band shedding preconceived notions and pressures pushed upon them as they sing, energetically, “I’m ready to be new again…”. The second song delivers as well because even with any outside distractions it’s hard not to get pulled into the lead single, “Sink Into Me” as the chorus employs sway to sweep you into its groove.

“Lonely, Lonely” is the albums first, but not only, misstep with repetition killing a chorus not strong enough to stand on its own much past the first appearance. Much like the band has been in the last few years the songs on ‘New Again’ are hit and miss, though it’s hard to blame the band for the mainstream focus that comes over most of the songs including one of my favorites, “Summer, Man”. Because of the mainstream rock radio direction [which is nothing new] the songs are mostly mid-paced rock with harder moments. Again, the passion and fire this band has always had is not replaced but the background singing/screaming has gone completely out the window.

“Where My Mouth Is” clearly is able to draw listeners in on its first play because I would argue that most fans of the band are suckers for the slower tracks (or slower parts) which continues to remain the secret sauce. There is a lot of this record which is really good, but at the same time there is a lot which is not as memorable as it should be. In the moment, the heavily distorted guitars and the soaring but stressed vocals of Adam Lazzara make so much sense, but looking back the impression just isn’t left.

This is an album which you won’t regret buying if you do, but if you don’t, you shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Full Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.