The Half Year In Review

Now that we’re almost half-way through the year, I think it’s time for a little recap of the music that has been released thus far and how this year is living up to my expectations.

In my End of the Year list last year, I could already tell that 2011 was going to be an epic year for music.  Despite my eager anticipation, there were still a few surprises.  Sadly, there were also some disappointments.

I was very curious as to where Death Cab For Cutie would go after Narrow Stairs.  Being a longtime fan, I was along for the ride and hoped they would go to even more amazing places.  Unfortunately, they put out Codes and Keys.  I’ve given it several good listenings and I’m not feeling it at all.  It is as boring of an album as they come, with only two tracks really standing out.  “You Are A Tourist”, the first single, is easily the most interesting song on the record.  It’s still incredibly mindless when it comes to its repetition and similar melodies and phrasing throughout the entire song.  It never goes anywhere and just peters out.  The other interesting song is “Under The Sycamore”, which I am drawn to based solely on its simple lyrics.

But simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing in 2011: just listen to Manchester Orchestra’s new album Simple Math.  Forgiving the play on words, Simple Math is anything but simple.  It’s a complicated album with layers of emotional turmoil and existential nightmares serving as the concept.  I’ve been aware of Andy Hull and Manchester Orchestra for quite some time.  I’ve heard live sets where Andy played solo with the insanely brilliant Kevin Devine and the temperamental Jesse Lacey.  I’ve even seen Manchester Orchestra play live.  But they never grabbed me.  It seemed boring and pretentious.  And then last year, the band teamed up with Kevin Devine and formed the band Bad Books.  They released a stellar album, my album of the year, and finally provided a means for me to love Andy Hull’s vocals.  So when Simple Math was released back in May, I decided that I wanted to give it a chance.  …Wow.  From the absolutely spine-tingling “Virgin”, which is in competition to be my song of the year thus far, to the upbeat “Pensacola”, with its stick-in-your-head-for-days vocal breakdowns, this album is insanely good.  It would not surprise me at all if it ended up in my top three albums of 2011.

An album that won’t be residing in my top three is the latest effort from The Get Up Kids, There Are Rules.  It’ll be lucky if it even cracks the Top Ten.  After the promises made on the Simple Science EP by songs like “Keith Case” and “Your Petty Pretty Things”, I was expecting an entirely different album.  “Your Petty Pretty Things” hinted at a moody album that sonically fell between Something To Write Home About and Guilt Show.  What we got was a mostly poor attempt at an electronic album.  Unlike Brandtson before them, The Get Up Kids were unable to make the transition from emo band to dance/electronic noise band.   The band made such a big deal about recording the whole thing to analog, yet it is so noisy and unnecessarily filled with bleeps and bloops.  There were a few songs to take away from the whole experience.  “Shatter Your Lungs” is a quirky romp with a 70’s/porn groove.  “Automatic” is catchy but is unsurprising in every turn.  “Rally Round The Fool” is also enjoyable before it delves deep into instrumental noise.  It’s fortunate that Jim Suptic also managed to put out a new Blackpool Lights EP called Okie Baroque.  It’s more in line with what I expected out of The Get Up Kids.  I would have expected something not quite so poppy but at least we will always have the song “Your Petty Pretty Things”.

As you can probably tell from my previous blog entry, I’m still highly anticipating the new Taking Back Sunday record.  After having listened to the third song/single released off of the record, “This Is All Now”, my anticipation has not waned in the slightest.  We are only about a week out from the release – how has this not leaked yet!?  (Editor’s Note: As of this morning (6/21/11), the new album has leaked. SQUEAL!   Expect a thorough review soon.)

I’m also really enjoying the new Kevin Devine material.  We don’t have a tracklisting for Between The Concrete And Clouds yet but I’ve heard quite a few songs from his recent sessions and live shows.  I also picked up the two 7 inch records he put out – one for “Luxemburg” and one for “Part Of The Whole”.  “Luxemburg” is the slower song of the two and Kevin’s brilliant songwriting shines through.  “Part Of The Whole” is upbeat and sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in The Get Up Kids’ back catalog.  The title track of the new album is amazing.  If you haven’t yet listened to it, go to YouTube and search for Kevin Devine’s Nervous Energies session.  His lyrics always send me reeling.  They are just that amazing.  The other songs I’ve heard, “Off-Screen”, “The City Has Left You Alone”, “11.17.10”, all shine in different ways.  I am exceedingly eager to see if he’ll be able to top Brother’s Blood.

I am very torn on the new Frank Turner album.  He’s gotten a lot more attention fromthe music media since I last saw him play live.  His latest effort got a full page review in Alternative Press, which included a mini-interview.  Spin also put him on their “24 Summer Albums That Matter Most” list, alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Beyonce, Red Hot Chili Peppers, OK Go, and (admittedly) the incredible Taking Back Sunday.  I don’t mind him getting the attention – I think it’s well deserved and long overdue.  But I hate how damn esoteric England Keep My Bones sounds.  The title does kind of say it all… it’s a very English sounding record.  With songs about the English Channel and growing up on an island, it’s a little harder to relate.  Even though the song “English Curse” is more history class than the pub, the acapella style in which it’s delivered makes it really hard to ignore.  

I just feel like his previous albums were a lot easier to get into and A LOT more accessible.  I would not recommend this album to first time listeners.  I would point them in the direction of 2008’s Love Ire & Song.  The three tracks off of this album that really stand out are, unsurprisingly, the three tracks that were released as singles/promos/teasers.  “I Still Believe” is every bit as good here as it was on the Rock & Roll EP.  “Peggy Sang The Blues” and “I Am Disappeared” are both top notch Frank Turner songs.  For fans of Frank Turner, go download the live acoustic demo versions of the aforementioned three songs that were featured on the promo CD if you pre-ordered England Keep My Bones.  They are a lot more raw, unproduced and earnest.   I also must point out that the closing track, “Glory Hallelujah”, is an excellent and pointed song with a chorus of “there is no god.”  Whether you like the folksy feel of his music or not, Frank Turner remains one of the punkest mother fuckers alive – he is unafraid of stand up for what he believes in, even when he knows it will alienate some of his fans.

After listening to the new Braid EP, Closer To Closed, I am really glad Bob Nanna and the gang gave it another go around.  Teaming up with master producer J. Robbins was an excellent choice – he has produced some of my favorite albums of all time.  From Jets To Brazil’s Orange Rhyming Dictionary to The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good to Against Me!’s Searching For A Former Clarity, his brilliance as a producer runs throughout my entire music collection.  I’m so glad that Look Mexico got J. Robbins to produce the album that they are working on right now.  But I digress.  Back to Braid… from the Chris Broach sung opener to the moment that Bob Nanna’s vocals hit your ears to the twinkling keys in the background, these songs sound like they were sonically plucked from the same musical zeitgeist that birthed 1998’s Frame & Canvas.  It was very ballsy of the band to release the entire EP two months early to those who already pre-ordered it.  The physical release is still scheduled for August.

The Dear Hunter just released the astounding and ambitious collection, The Color Spectrum.  It’s a set of nine EP’s, with each one being themed to a color of the spectrum and an additional EP for white and an additional EP for black.  Each color has its own theme, feel and mood.  I just received my vinyl box set in the mail a couple of days ago and I must say that they could have done the presentation side much better.  Maybe I’m just judging them based on the standards set forth by the equally ambitious Alchemy Index by Thrice, which is perhaps one of the most beautiful presentations of vinyl that I have ever seen in my life.  They should have given each EP its own sleeve printed with the cover art found in the booklet.  Instead, each one is white with a pattern design that samples the art work of each EP.  It looks so boring.  It was obvious and brilliant to press each EP on its corresponding color of vinyl though they got it a bit wrong when they pressed the yellow EP: it is just a shade off from the orange one and both could easily be considered orange.  I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t find a more suitable translucent yellow vinyl to press.

But enough about the packaging, how does the music sound?  The answer is, well, pretty damn amazing.  I have not yet listened to The Complete Collection and so I’m speaking about the retail CD, which is essentially a “best of” compilation of 11 tracks taken from the Complete Collection of 36 tracks.  The CD hits hard from the start with “Filth & Squalor”, the song taken from the Black EP.  The Black EP is heavy electronic music with lyrics that touch on the darkness of mankind.  The Red EP is straightforward indie rock.  “Deny It All”, off of the Red EP, is one of my favorites off of the retail version.  It features guest vocals from Andy Hull, who is the frontman for Manchester Orchestra.  The Orange EP is a very rock anthem / 70's / classic rock EP.  It’s got guitar solos and funky bass lines.  The orange track, “But There Are Wolves?” has a bass line that is just amazing.  The Yellow EP is the light, fun, poppy EP.  It sounds more like the The Beatles.  The Green EP has slide guitars and acoustic guitars, giving it more of a "rootsy" and Americana vibe.  The Blue EP is the ballad kind of EP, with slower songs about relationships.  The Indigo EP features electronic instrumentation, but in a more dreamlike way than the Black EP.  The Violet EP is the most like previous Dear Hunter albums.  It's got the orchestration and strings of the previous Acts.  And lastly, the White EP.  The best description I've gotten of this one is that it is supposed to sound heavenly and ethereal.  The vocals have a lot of effects on them and they are some of the happiest songs in tone and content.

Over the weekend, my wife and I began listening to the entire collection on vinyl.  We began in order, of course, with the Black EP.  I’m usually not a huge fan of the electronic sound but it’s done very well here.  “Filth & Squalor” is definitely a stand-out track and was a good choice for the retail version.  “This Body” is also a recommended track.  For those of you familiar with Casey’s previous band, The Receiving End of Sirens, “This Body” feels very much like the companion track to “Planning A Prison Break”.  Both carry the metaphor of the body being a prison.

After the Black EP, we put on the Red EP for a spin.  I really liked this EP and it might end up being my favorite of the nine.  Andy Hull’s guest vocals aren’t just featured on “Deny It All”; they play a very welcome role in the entire EP.  The last record we got a chance to listen to was the Orange EP.  It’s every bit as classic rock as I’d imagined – filled to the brim with guitar noodling and solos galore.  That’s a third of the EP’s down and 2/3^rd’s to go.  

And as a final aside, after seeing the new pictures of Taking Back Sunday in Alternative Press: wow, Adam got chubby!  He’s seriously working on a double chin.  Though John Nolan looks identical to how he looked almost 10 years ago (my guess is that he is a cyborg).  Also, after looking at the pictures from the Nervous Energies Session that Mike Kinsella played under the pseudonym of his band Owen – wow, he got chubby!  The one thing they have in common?  Both got married and had a kid.  Coincidence?  I think not!

The Return of Taking Back Sunday

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you don’t care about good music, you have probably heard that the original line-up of Taking Back Sunday has reunited and will be releasing their self-titled reintroduction at the end of this month.   It seems like opinions are mixed, like they would be with anything.  Personally, I am loving it.

When Tell All Your Friends was released, I was not a fan of Taking Back Sunday.  Instead, I was a huge fan of Brand New.  Your Favorite Weapon was playing out as the soundtrack to my high school life.  In fact, it wasn’t until quite some time later that I actually sat down and listened to Tell All Your Friends.  Prior to that, all Taking Back Sunday had been to me was some trendy band that all these newly minted “emo” people were wearing t-shirts of.   Unexpectedly, Tell All Your Friends was breathtakingly awesome.  Nowadays, Taking Back Sunday remains one of my favorite bands of all time.  They are one of the few bands that I know virtually every lyric of.  And, of course, Tell All Your Friends cemented its place among the influential albums in my life, next to albums like The Get Up Kids’ Something To Write Home About and The Ataris’ Blue Skies, Broken Hearts, Next 12 Exits…  

I didn’t follow music as diligently back then as I do now so by the time their sophomore album, Where You Want To Be, came out, I was as confused as I could possibly get.  Why didn’t the guy singing backup vocals sound the same?  Why does the lead singer now look like a Grunge Jesus?  I quickly found out that the band had parted ways with guitarist/co-vocalist John Nolan and bassist, Shaun Cooper.  The reasons behind the split have become the things of scene lore.  They will also probably be more accurately covered in the new Alternative Press and their in-depth oral history of the band. 

 I listened as the two departed bandmates formed Straylight Run with John’s sister Michelle and drummer Will Noon, former drummer of Breaking Pangaea – another band that ended up getting dragged into the middle of everything.   I liked Straylight Run but I missed the way John used to really scream/sing.  Straylight Run’s mellow tone didn’t really suit itself to that sound.

Fred never sounded right to me.  On Where You Want To Be, it just sounded like he was struggling and straining to imitate John Nolan’s vocals.  He started to come into his own on Louder Now, though his guitar influence was obvious (for better or worse).  You can tell that it was an awkward sound for him because if you listen to the material that Fred has done since (like The Color Fred or Terrible Things), his vocals sounds much more natural and a ton better.

After Louder Now, Fred went the way of the buffalo and Taking Back Sunday welcomed Matt Fazzi (formerly of Facing New York) into the fold.  I had seen Facing New York live when they opened up for TBS and they were boring as hell.  Fortunately, and surprisingly, Matt Fazzi fit perfectly.  Like Matt Rubano before him, TBS had made another wise decision in finding a replacement band member.  But after one album, New Again, which was panned by the band (more on that later), the two Matt’s went out with the new and in came the old.  TBS had mended their fences and welcomed the original members back into the band.

The first thing most said when they heard the news was “they’re doing it for the money.”  I’m still not sure if that’s right or not.  I think if money was their primary goal, they could have easily just done a “Tell All Your Friends” tour where they played the album in its entirety every night and it would have sold out every venue.  That’s surely a testament to how near and dear that album is to the hearts of TBS fans.  The band didn’t just go for the obvious tour though.  They chose to go back into the studio together and actually write and record new material.  

They even re-worked one of the songs originally written in the wake of TAYF before John and Shaun left the band.  The hilariously weird titled “Baby Your Beard Hurts” (or “I’m Not Gay, I Just Wish I Were”) now has an equally bizarre working title of “Why Not A Sexy Pirate?”, although during the recording session the band referred to it as “You Should Have Waited.”  They’ve changed the chorus (for the better, might I add) and from what I can gather, they fully recorded the new version.  Sadly, it didn’t make the cut and will NOT be on the new album.  On the plus side, TBS is really good about making sure all of their non-album tracks get released at some point either as b-sides to singles or retailer exclusives.

One very interesting point to note is how the band is controlling the release of new songs.  They are choosing each release carefully and, thus far, the album hasn’t leaked in its entirety.  The band is now poised to release its second EP in as many weeks consisting of two new songs and a newly recorded acoustic version of a classic song off of TAYF.  First, we got the “Faith (When I Let You Down)” single which had “Faith”, “El Paso” and the acoustic version of “Great Romances of the 20^th Century”. The new EP will have “This Is All Now”, “Best Places To Be A Mom” and the acoustic version of “Ghost Man On Third”.  As much as it seems like a cash grab for them to record acoustic versions of old songs to pull at the heartstrings of long time fans and provide incentive to purchase the new music, I think it’s actually quite brilliant.  It’s much easier for someone to make little music purchases at a time.  I’ve always had a built in prejudice against dropping $9.99 for digital music that will you never get to hold in your hands.  But to convince me to spend $3.87 is not quite so hard.  Plus, the acoustic versions are completely worth the price for anyone that holds TAYF in high regard.  And for those worried about repurchasing the same songs over and over again, iTunes will allow you to “Complete The Album” at a cheaper price since you have already purchased some of the tracks.

In reading the news stories on AbsolutePunk and watching some of the live acoustic sessions that John and Adam are doing, I’ve noticed A LOT of people complaining about how bad Adam’s vocals sound.  News Flash: Adam’s vocals have ALWAYS sucked.  Go YouTube any live video from the TAYF era.  You will hear that he sounds as bad now as he did back then.  There is a reason that Adam is more known for his showmanship than his vocal talents.  He is entertaining as hell to watch and he will swing that mic like crazy.  But the truth is that John always had to carry the vocals of the song whenever Adam started messing around on stage.  That’s part of the frenetic joy that makes Taking Back Sunday so much fun.

For the record, I am really digging these new songs.  I think “Best Places To Be A Mom” might be my favorite thus far only because it sounds more like classic TBS with its unbridled energy and dangerously contagious chorus.  “El Paso” is a close second – it’s a song that Adam described as the hardest song that the band has ever written.   “Faith” is a good song but it sounds a lot more like modern rock and is the most generic of the three.  This is definitely my most anticipated album of the year and I can’t wait to get my grubby little paws on the rest of it.

Now onto a question I have been pondering: Was New Again really that bad?

Not that long ago, if you had asked me to list Taking Back Sunday’s albums in order from Best to Worst, I would have been able to do so in an instant.  Tell All Your Friends was their best, followed by Louder Now, then New Again with Where You Want To Be being their worst album.  But now I’m not so sure.  I’ve read what the band has said about New Again.  Adam said that the album "was a gigantic step backwards" and that he was "not fully satisfied with what [he] put out".  Eddie Reyes, the founder of the band and its longest standing member, also said of the album, "it’s just my least favorite album. This album was the worst album we've ever created."  Even John Nolan, who wasn’t even IN the band at the time they made it, stated that New Again “was the worst Taking Back Sunday album the band created constructively.”  Though, seemingly as a consolation prize, he did point out that he still liked the album.

However, the album also received relatively positive critical reviews.  Alternative Press gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-.  And we all know how much those two magazines are the peak of literary awesomeness.

So in preparation for their new album, I gave Taking Back Sunday’s entire discography a good re-listening.  Now I’m as torn as ever.  I still love New Again and can’t understand why the entire band hates that album.  But I’ll admit that I can see where it may also be their worst record.  But remember - the worst Taking Back Sunday album is still leaps and bounds better than the best modern rock record.

Follow me as I flip-flop: in reading Scott Heisel’s review of New Again in AP, it makes me feel like the album is amazing and is definitely worth 4.5 stars.  But that’s not entirely accurate.  There are songs on New Again that are incredible – some of the best that Taking Back Sunday has ever written.  “New Again” and “Sink Into Me” are both still very fun romps with handclaps and sing-a-longs.  “Carpathia” remains a bass-driven, hard hitting song that is every bit as enjoyable to listen to now as it was the first time I heard it.  I have to agree with the guys in the band that “Everything Must Go” is definitely one of, if not THE, best song on the album.  But aside from those songs, what does New Again have to offer?  “Capital M-E” is a catchy song with its caustic lyrics directed towards former member Fred Mascherino.  Songs like “Where My Mouth Is” had great premises – introspective lyrics about drug use, catchy melodies, etc – but not even Panic At The Disco/All Time Low knob-turner Matt Squire could save the aforementioned tune.  Two of the bonus tracks, “Didn’t See That Coming” and “Winter Passing”, are better than half of the actual album.  Aside from the four or five tracks, we were also subjected to some of the worst songs that TBS has ever written.  “Lonely, Lonely” is not only worse than any of the songs on Where You Want To Be – it just might be the worst TBS song ever.  It ranks right up there with garbage like Louder Now’s “Miami”.  A portion of the songs on New Again like “Swing”, “Cut Me Up Jenny”, and “Catholic Knees” come together to form an uninspired and uninteresting mess.

So how does Where You Want To Be fare?  Let’s start off with the first single, “A Decade Under The Influence”, which easily attains the status as one of the most irritatingly repetitive songs ever.  Not only does Fred’s voice just not sound like it belongs, it is actually painful to hear him straining his vocals cords to make the backup vocals grittier.  Whoever thought it was a swell idea to repeat the phrase “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” no less than a hundred times in the course of a three minute song should be shot.  The repetition of that phrase works so well in Star Wars because it’s spread out throughout six movies.  Otherwise, it’s just annoying as hell.  The other track that is completely skip-worthy is “New American Classic” – a half-hearted attempt at an acoustic ballad.  The next weakest song was the second single, “This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)”.  It’s not awful but it just isn’t that great.  Aside from that, the other songs on Where You Want To Be have stood up remarkably well to time.  I probably would have enjoyed more of the album if there hadn’t been the jarring transition from John to Fred.

Song for song, New Again has to be their worst album.  But in tone and musicality, New Again feels like a much better album.  I find the instrumentation on WYWTB to be less palatable than the upbeat, summery feel of New Again.  I won’t begin to touch on Louder Now because between the live tracking demos that leaked, the end result and the songs that didn’t make the album, I could write another five pages.  

One thing is clear from my re-listening: they will never top Tell All Your Friends.  The raw, youthful energy that TAYF captures cannot be recreated.  The call and response vocals and the melodious interplay, though numerous bands have attempted to mimic the sound, remains out of reach by everybody, including the band that created it.  But maybe that’s ok.  A band made up of five guys who are almost all married and have children will never write from the same perspective – that’s why they can’t write an album like Tell All Your Friends again.  They aren’t teenagers anymore.  That album came to me when I was also the same age, which is perhaps why it struck such a strong chord.  So for as much as I will always love Tell All Your Friends, I think I need the band to evolve and create a new sound.  I need them to create an album that my 25 year old self can love every bit as much as my teenager self loved Tell All Your Friends.