Album Review: Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
October 4th 2008 07:58
Even though the title of Taking Back Sunday's latest release Louder Now seems to be an affirmation of their changing sound they still appear to subscribe to the old adage of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.
Taking Back Sunday’s third release was always going to be a contentious undertaking. Whether the criticism centres on the similarity of their albums or their tenuous hardcore credentials they were never going to emerge unscathed. It’s enough to make Ian MacKaye turn to the bottle and honestly, who could blame him? Perhaps I was having a nap at the time but when did hardcore turn into the histrionic, uninspiring genre it has presently become.
What happened to the overt machismo of hardcore or the nihilistic sensibilities of the punk revivalists who maintained the primal punk rock sound brought to the fore by bands like The Stooges? What can our generation offer that would be remotely akin to Iggy Pop cutting himself open onstage, blood dribbling from the wound as he rubbed peanut butter across his torso?
It seems that the times of excess are well and truly gone and that jarring, raucous sound of musicians coming to terms with their instruments has been replaced by a vapid mediocrity parading under the guise of emo. Scores of trust fund teens have now been given an inflated sense of loss by lacklustre bands whose main endeavour is to hide their private school education.
The one main grievance with Louder Now centres on frontman Adam Lazzara’s vocals which at times tend to border on a limp whimper. The album opens with the guitar driven What it Feels Like to be a Ghost, which is a hardcore tinged affair and a welcome surprise from their previous work, but it subsequently descends into dreaded pop/punk territory with the re-emergence of that familiar mewling when Lazzara uses upper register vocals. The frantically urgent tone of Liar (It Takes One To Know One) vacillates between strong vocals and a muted undertone but it brings to mind The Rollins Band’s Liar which only highlights how lacking in commitment this song is.
There are moments when the album teeters towards the prosaic such as on MakeDamnSure and Up Against (Blackout) which are archetypal pop/punk confections with whining vocals and even whinier guitars. My Blue Heaven is a protracted offering but the soft harmonies and the obligatory string arrangement work well and should have the fanboys wetting their pants.
It’s only on Twenty-Twenty Surgery where they begin to tread on the right path with a great angular riff and guttural screamo vocals that regrettably last all of three seconds. It’s a shame because screamo seems like a more agreeable direction for them. It’s continued in Spin where Lazzara spits out his barbed lyrics with an abrasive vocal.
Even though they’ve advanced towards a darker sound they are at their best on the reflective Miami. It is a melodic anomaly with its wistful refrain that despite the frenetic guitar solo manages to impart a great sense of yearning. It’s sad and melancholic but it’s also warm and uplifting at the same time.
It’s safe to say that Taking Back Sunday’s back catalogue has shown them to be a poor representative of melodic hardcore. It always placed them in the same middle of the road punk bracket as Green Day, New Found Glory and all the other cookie cutter pop/punk bands floating out there. They’re good at what they do. The music is catchy and appealing but the problem is that it’s also ephemeral. A minute after listening to the album only one or two songs might stand out. Several minutes later, they are all forgotten. They give good vitriol and are at their best when Lazzara is spitting out an angry invective that is pure brooding hardcore or singing a delicate melody with a soft, refined vocal. However, they always tend to regress back into pop/punk by numbers that lies limply somewhere in between.
Those that are enamoured with Taking Back Sunday will be more than happy to continue the journey alongside them but for everyone else there’s always someone better looming around the corner that manages to maintain some semblance of post hardcore. The problem lies in the fact that they’ve aligned themselves with a new genre that is all smoke and mirrors whilst still claiming ownership of another that is a mere husk. Maybe it’s time for me to let go of the past, to dispense with my pompous diatribes and rash judgements and move on, but these guys haven’t yet given me the incentive to do so and the past still looks a whole lot more tempting than what’s on offer right now.
Taking Back Sunday’s third release was always going to be a contentious undertaking. Whether the criticism centres on the similarity of their albums or their tenuous hardcore credentials they were never going to emerge unscathed. It’s enough to make Ian MacKaye turn to the bottle and honestly, who could blame him? Perhaps I was having a nap at the time but when did hardcore turn into the histrionic, uninspiring genre it has presently become.
What happened to the overt machismo of hardcore or the nihilistic sensibilities of the punk revivalists who maintained the primal punk rock sound brought to the fore by bands like The Stooges? What can our generation offer that would be remotely akin to Iggy Pop cutting himself open onstage, blood dribbling from the wound as he rubbed peanut butter across his torso?
It seems that the times of excess are well and truly gone and that jarring, raucous sound of musicians coming to terms with their instruments has been replaced by a vapid mediocrity parading under the guise of emo. Scores of trust fund teens have now been given an inflated sense of loss by lacklustre bands whose main endeavour is to hide their private school education.
The one main grievance with Louder Now centres on frontman Adam Lazzara’s vocals which at times tend to border on a limp whimper. The album opens with the guitar driven What it Feels Like to be a Ghost, which is a hardcore tinged affair and a welcome surprise from their previous work, but it subsequently descends into dreaded pop/punk territory with the re-emergence of that familiar mewling when Lazzara uses upper register vocals. The frantically urgent tone of Liar (It Takes One To Know One) vacillates between strong vocals and a muted undertone but it brings to mind The Rollins Band’s Liar which only highlights how lacking in commitment this song is.
There are moments when the album teeters towards the prosaic such as on MakeDamnSure and Up Against (Blackout) which are archetypal pop/punk confections with whining vocals and even whinier guitars. My Blue Heaven is a protracted offering but the soft harmonies and the obligatory string arrangement work well and should have the fanboys wetting their pants.
It’s only on Twenty-Twenty Surgery where they begin to tread on the right path with a great angular riff and guttural screamo vocals that regrettably last all of three seconds. It’s a shame because screamo seems like a more agreeable direction for them. It’s continued in Spin where Lazzara spits out his barbed lyrics with an abrasive vocal.
Even though they’ve advanced towards a darker sound they are at their best on the reflective Miami. It is a melodic anomaly with its wistful refrain that despite the frenetic guitar solo manages to impart a great sense of yearning. It’s sad and melancholic but it’s also warm and uplifting at the same time.
It’s safe to say that Taking Back Sunday’s back catalogue has shown them to be a poor representative of melodic hardcore. It always placed them in the same middle of the road punk bracket as Green Day, New Found Glory and all the other cookie cutter pop/punk bands floating out there. They’re good at what they do. The music is catchy and appealing but the problem is that it’s also ephemeral. A minute after listening to the album only one or two songs might stand out. Several minutes later, they are all forgotten. They give good vitriol and are at their best when Lazzara is spitting out an angry invective that is pure brooding hardcore or singing a delicate melody with a soft, refined vocal. However, they always tend to regress back into pop/punk by numbers that lies limply somewhere in between.
Those that are enamoured with Taking Back Sunday will be more than happy to continue the journey alongside them but for everyone else there’s always someone better looming around the corner that manages to maintain some semblance of post hardcore. The problem lies in the fact that they’ve aligned themselves with a new genre that is all smoke and mirrors whilst still claiming ownership of another that is a mere husk. Maybe it’s time for me to let go of the past, to dispense with my pompous diatribes and rash judgements and move on, but these guys haven’t yet given me the incentive to do so and the past still looks a whole lot more tempting than what’s on offer right now.
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