Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now review
Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
Louder Now: B+
Where You Want To Be: A-
Tell All Your Friends: A
When a band that has had moderate success without major label backing, acquires a rabid fan-base, and then puts out their first album with a major label, everyone holds their breath. A lot of times this is the kiss of death for a band, perhaps not in terms of success but losing their loyal fan base. When a band gets mainstream success and puts out one album that flops commercially, it means those fans that “liked” them for that one album have already moved on to something else that caught their ear on the radio. For their once-dedicated fans that feel the band turned their back on them, this is sweet vindication. Without fans, the band fails.
It’s happened once and it’ll happen over and over again. So how did Taking Back Sunday walk this thin thin line between artistic integrity, growth, and the push to fit into the mold of the mainstream? For me personally, they did a fine job, one that will no doubt draw in new fans who have no idea what their past music sounds like, but will also retain the majority of their already established fans.
Granted, the album is far more polished than their previous work, their incredible hype-inducing debut, “Tell All Your Friends”, and their follow-up success after their losing two members to Straylight Run, “Where You Want To Be.” This serves to be a blessing for an album that is primarily a good sounding and thoroughly entertaining record, rather than an essential one.
It seems that a small portion of lyrical quality and clever ingenuity was lost after the departure of John Nolan, whose life was an inspiration to many of the classics found on their debut. The lyrics are still in a high echelon when measured against their counterparts.
Unsurprisingly, this is their most diversified effort, which is at times a good thing, such as the case with “Error:Operator”. However, this “experimentation” fails miserably on their xylophone-laced, ill-fated “Divine Intervention,” which goes to prove why a old school guitar ballad like “New American Classic” works so much better, without inducing a vomitous reaction with this contrived and over-produced piece of garbage.
The first single, “MakeDamnSure” is the stalker anthem of the summer, and to my surprise, is one of the least radio-friendly songs on the album, despite the fact you can barely tell it’s TBS based on the first verse.
Adam Lazzara’s vocal delivery is another aspect that is much more varied, giving a feeling of a “Timberwolves in New Jersey” vibe on a majority of the tracks. On songs like “Twenty-Twenty Surgery,” one of the standout tracks, this works better than it should. On others like “Miami,” whose chorus makes it so it should have stayed on the cutting room floor, not so much.
Where the album really works best is when they hit you with work that sounds like it could have been on older TBS albums, such as their straight-forward rocker “Spin,” featuring the back and forth vocal delivery that is really TBS’s bread and butter.
This isn’t to say they shouldn’t try new things, but their old style should be foremost with these nice little new tracks taking lower-priority. This is one of the primary reasons why songs like “Blue Channel” and “Timberwolves” worked so well in the past. However, they shouldn’t be center-stage above classics like “Cute without the E” or “There’s No I in Team.”
Overall though, this is a very strong piece of work, one that never fails in it’s pure ability to entertain. In a few small ways, it may be considered their best album. On the other hand, in many ways, especially in terms of connecting on any sort of real emotional connection, it is their worst.
It does little to hold a candle to their the raw, real debut, “Tell All Your Friends,” which is one of the best albums in the genre. The brilliant condescension and energy of that work, and to a slightly lesser extent “Where You Want to Be”, is not entirely lost, but is all but over shadowed by an attempt to sound cool.
Kevin Spacey on SNL season finale
Awesome news, Kevin Spacey will host SNL’s season finale on may 20th.
The Submarines - Modern Inventions
Song: Modern Inventions
Artist: The Submarines
Album: Declare a New State!
Why This Song? First and foremost, thank you all for your recommendations the week I was under the weather. It definitely gave me a lot of new music to look into. To be honest, I didn’t get to hear every song/artist that was recommended, so please forgive me. However, keep the suggestions coming because I will be looking into each and every one.
This week, Josue Salazar and Daniel Nicholas’ suggestion for “something” from The Submarines won out. In part due to the fact that this is one of the albums I have out of the suggestions, but also they are just a plain good band.
Zach Hale’s recommendation of Phoenix’s “Long Distance Call” was definitely one that I would love to feature, since the song is so kick ass and should be listened to by anyone who wants to hear a really killer song. However, Zach featured it on his mix tape, so I decided to go with The Submarines instead.
This song in particular was in a deadlock with “Brighter Discontent”, which ties for my other favorite song on the album. However, this song features both Blake Hazard’s and John Dragonetti’s vocals, instead of the prior’s solo feature on Brighter Discontent.
This song has a very cool electronic vibe and has an undeniably catchy sound. Immediately you recall a Verve-esque sound in the music. This is pretty much the primary reason why I like this song so much. Some lyrics on other songs are perhaps stronger, but are not encased in such a glossy-fresh sounding musical envelope.
For a duo that not only makes music together but also had a relationship that didn’t last, it is surprising that the lyrics on the album aren’t a little bit more bitter, but as they described it “Our break-up was more sad than angry.” I would have liked to hear more anger, but the sad worked just as well. To be honest, there is not one song on this album that doesn’t hold my attention or would deem skip-worthy.
This album is pure alt-pop confection that is easy to listen to and easy to love. They were quoted as saying that this was a record they never thought would have been made. Luckily for us, it was. Who knows if another one will ever happen again, so get while the getting is good.
Fox Reality and porn stars
Ah Fox, one of the oddest TV networks around. They supply us with a constant amount of humor, making us both laugh with them and at them.
By now you all know of my profound dislike of reality TV, if not start reading. In the latest bit of news on the reality TV circuit I think I’ve been given either a healthy dose of ammunition to continue my battle or a booby trap.
(more…)
Rebooted: PaulStamatiou.com
We’ll try to keep a running list of any of our friends that reboot. The first is Paul Stamatiou’s site. Although he redesigned early, we’ll give him credit anyway. Looks good Stammy.
The Blue Planet: Episode Three - Open Ocean
The Blue Planet is a documentary about the history of the oceans on our planet. We’re going to cover each episode separately, this is the third.
The open ocean
Open Ocean
This episode gives you a real respect for the sheer size of the ocean. Most of ocean life huddles around the shores of Earth’s continents, yet that doesn’t mean there isn’t life in the middle of it.
Food is much harder to come by, and being that as it is, only the very big and very fast animals can survive in the open ocean. Sail fish, marlins, and dolphins are some of the more common large fish and mammals that you will find out in the middle of the ocean.
This guy is fast
The speed of some of the animals in the open ocean is staggering. As you’ll see in later episodes, some of the worlds largest animals are also the worlds quickest in the ocean. I can’t wait to watch the next episode.
Pick up a copy of The Blue Planet on DVD at Amazon, you’ll not regret it.
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Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.
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