Taking Back Sunday – S/T

- 18/07/11 22:10

Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming. Is that John Nolan wailing in the background? Why yes, yes it is. Ladies and gentlemen it has been nine long years but the dudes are back in action. The old family is back together and their portrait is a beautiful one. The truth is that once a band finds an equation that creates their ambiance, it’s not likely that adding and subtracting different members will keep the equation even. Sure, Taking Back Sunday have produced some pretty worthwhile music under the influence of an almost completely new lineup of members but nothing comes close to hitting the mark left by the original guys. Luckily for us, the guys of TBS have returned to their roots and have given us the gift of a new album, one of their strongest yet.

Self-titling the album was an affirming gesture in itself. It is as if to say, “Yeah, those albums in the past nine years were Adam Lazzara but we’re Taking Back Sunday again. And that’s so much better.” Their opening track « El Paso » is a grunge-y song that would have Kurt Cobain posthumously shedding a tear of joy. Its heaviness and aggressiveness feels curiously like a great big hug on behalf of the band. It is just so good that it hurts and it reminds us of what we’ve been missing. Its anthem-like chorus is the knees of the song raging, “you never get what you give”. Yet it seems as though TBS will still give as much as they have, if not more.

« Sad Savior » shows us the psychotherapist side of frontman Lazzara as he reassures that, “you don’t have to pretend to be an orphan anymore/ you don’t have to pretend to be important anymore”. It leaves us with the sense of allowing ourselves to let go of pretenses and that as much as we know already but refuse to realize, we aren’t alone, someone has been at that low before just like you. « Money (Let it Go) » is a swingy, upbeat song about the denial that comes with a woman being after you only for your money. The guitar work in the song is reminiscent of the British beat. A little bit Sex Pistols and a little bit Babyshambles.

The greatest element to notice throughout the album is how much Adam Lazzara’s lyricism has significantly matured. Long gone are the days of the teenage angst-y “with my one last gasping breath, I’ll apologize for bleeding on your shoes” yet he still retains the ability to say something powerful in a dramatic way that is oh-so-Adam. The improvement is most evident in « Faith (When I Let You Down) » as he pleads to a certain someone to look past his flaws and to lose faith in anything else in the world before losing faith in him.

For those that were fans before, I assure that the sentiment will only grow stronger. For those that never gave TBS a try, now’s a good time to start. Change is a good thing but sometimes it needs to happen in order to remind us what we’ve missed.

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