Listen To This 4: Taking Back Sunday

Written by Craig Will, puffkix Sunday, 19 June 2011 11:00

Has it really been almost two months since I last wrote a music review? I won't bombard you with excuses as to why it's been so long, let's just jump to the good stuff.

The 5th full length studio album from Taking Back Sunday is self-titled and set to drop on June 28th. With a single already released, El Paso, and a tour schedule that brings them to me on June 17th, I am very excited. So this episode of Listen To This is going to be focused solely on Taking Back Sunday. Here we go...

Tell All Your Friends - 2002

Their first album combines a pop-punk emo dual vocal sound with antagonistic lyrics. There are a few bands that can successfully fuse two vocalists with similar voices into a CD and Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara and John Nolan weave their articulations in such a natural way it's hard to imagine that most bands have only one singer.

Listen to these: Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team) - You're So Last Summer - Bike Scene
Bonus Tracks: Listen to "There's No 'I' In Team" then listen to Brand New's "Seventy Times Seven" off of "Your Favorite Weapon." Now listen to both albums in their entirety and see how many similar lines you can find. Coincidence? No… Google it; just remember that this was almost 10 years ago and isn't really relevant now. But it sure is interesting.

Where You Want To Be - 2004

Experiencing a line-up change, TBS' sophomore record replaces Nolan (he and bassist Shaun Cooper left and formed Straylight Run) with Fred Mascherino (and Matt Rubano on bass). The change isn't quite as drastic as one would think, though instrumentally this album sounds a lot cleaner, the vocals and layout of the songs don't drift too far off course. There is some contention among fans over which album is better: Tell All Your Friends or Where You Want To Be, although honestly they are both amazing.

Listen to these: Set Phasers To Stun - One-Eighty By Summer - Bonus Mash pt. II

Louder Now - 2006

Louder Now finds Adam producing solo vocals though they are layered to sound like more than one vocalist is present. In other words Adam does two jobs to make it sound like it's still Taking Back Sunday. If you've played Rock Band then you have probably at least seen a couple tracks off of this CD in the Rock Band store. This has been their most commercially successful album and it's not hard to see why. The content feels similar but is much more accessible and it is actually easier to understand the lyrics than on the previous albums.

Listen to these: Liar (It Takes One To Know One) - I'll Let You Live - MakeDamnSure

New Again - 2009

New Again lives up to it's name and feels like something completely different and, well, new. There is a definite shift in overall sound. Adam is again the only vocalist but this time it's much more apparent. While this album isn't quite as enjoyable for fans of the old stuff (or members of the band if FormSpring is to be believed), it's still a good CD.

Listen to these: New Again - Sink Into Me - Carpathia
Bonus Track: The soft song "Where My Mouth Is"
Super Bonus: Check out my blog to see a trailer I made for the movie Visioneers with "Where My Mouth Is"

Taking Back Sunday - 2011

There's been a reunion and Taking Back Sunday now boasts the "Tell All Your Friends" lineup! At the time of this writing El Paso is the only song available to listen to off the newest record, though it won't be long until all the tracks are in my hands with hand scrawled lyrics by Adam (I'm such a sucker for collector's editions). If the single is anything to go off of then this album is going to be a complete re-imagining of the TBS I know and love. And I couldn't be more excited.

Listen to These… er, this (for now): El Paso