Supposedly emo is depressing, but not in all cases, sometimes it can actually make you go “Wow, I don’t hate emo, I just hate the kids that listen to emo.” This is my view on this surging genre of music called “emo”. Taking Back Sunday is an emo septet composed of two battling guitars and two cohesive singers. The band is as emo as Jimmy Eat World’s “Clarity” but has the edge of Sparta’s “Wiretap Scars”. “Tell All Your Friends” is great teenage angst at its finest. You won’t find any complex issues or world affairs but you will find a heart broken guy with a lot of girl problems. This is what you come to expect anyhow from “emo” bands in general, so I will not knock them for this.
Taking Back Sunday is composed of Ed Reyes, Mark O’ Connell, Shaun Cooper, John Nolan and Adam Lazzara. They have a definite sound that only emotionally panged kids in their 20’s could have. The lyrics are deep but show their age, which at times is reminiscent of high school, then again their target audience is high schooler’s. Taking Back Sunday has some catchy hooks as well as some inventive song titles such as “Great Romances of the 20th Century” and their single “Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)”. Their pursuit of unpredictability suits the band well with hooks that don’t feel reworked or used. They just feel new and natural. That is a high point of this record, the fact that from start to finish you cannot guess the next word or change or breakdown it all has its sequence uitself.
Their single “Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)” is by far the popiest of all the songs on the album. This song doesn’t give you that gagging vomiting feeling, that so many poppy-punk crap bands give you today. It is a bit teen angst as I said so brace your self for that and all will take care of itself. Then there are a bunch of tracks I will mention for the sake of mentioning. “Timberwolves at New Jersey” is a great track upbeat and very quasi-pop-jumping-head-nodding thing. Hyphens make me an awesome writer. “Your so last Summer” reminds me of every girl that thought she was to good to go out with me or thought she was hot stuff, but in all actuality had way to many STD’s. Enough about me back to the album. The lead track of the album “You Know How I Do” is the tone setter for the album as the songs flow and its lyrical construction brings you into the Taking Back Sunday mind set.(That’s basically the best way to describe it).
Overall here is the low down, if you hunger for emo and crying and self pity and all that awesome wrist smashingly good times. Then be sure to grab a copy of this album, I fully have taken to it even though I am kind of skeptical of people who try to steal days of the week from me, but I think I can live with losing just one. |