Taking Back Sunday picked the most appropriate title for their new record, “Louder Now.” The Long Island, New York natives took their music and song writing up a notch on their third full-length album. Characterized by crunchy guitars, driving drums and ridiculously catchy vocals, “Louder Now” is yet another positive step in the evolution of this group.
The album’s opening track, “What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost,” begins with a jangling guitar part before the rest of the band blasts in through the speakers. Lead vocalist Adam Lazzara croons a melody as backing guitarist/vocalist Fred Mascherino uses his raspy voice to blend with Lazzara’s.
It is these vocals that really make this group stand out among the sea of other rising emo rock artists. Mascherino and Lazzara do a good job splitting the vocal parts up between the two of them and the tones compliment each other very well.
Mascherino and bassist Matt Rubano joined TBS in 2004 after original guitarist/vocalist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper left, amidst conflicts within the band, to start the indie act Straylight Run. Although Mascherino and Rubano each brought a different playing style to Taking Back Sunday, their second album with the group shows they have assimilated themselves very well to their new musical surroundings and have begun perfecting the art of writing pop-rock songs.
Lyrically, this album is right on par with the band’s other releases. “I’m an addict for dramatics, I confuse the two for love,” confesses Lazzara in “Liar (It Takes One To Know One),” the band’s most recent single. It is these types of self-reflective and utterly personal confessions that draw fans toward this group.
Taking the dual vocals, intriguing lyrics and a driving rhythm section to the max, the third track, “MakeDamnSure,” was the first single released from this album and is a typical TBS song. The song is a musical roller coaster as the band goes from quiet and delicate to loud and raucous behind Lazzara’s signature wail. If you saw the video or heard the song on the radio and enjoyed it, you will most likely enjoy the rest of the album.
Buried toward the end of the effort is the most surprising song, “Spin.” This is where the group perfectly shows the “Louder Now” musical persona; an aggressive, in-your-face scream-fest that reminds old-school fans of the band’s first effort, “Tell All Your Friends,” released in 2002. With venomous lyrics and some gut-wrenching screaming, “Spin” is much rougher and dirtier than the other polished pop rock tracks on the album.
TBS has melted two very opposite traits into one well delivered rock ‘n’ roll album. On one hand, this is one of the loudest albums TBS has produced. Yet “Louder Now” still maintains and fully embraces the band’s pop appeal and accessibility to a mainstream audience. This is to their credit. The prospect of making an album that straddles the line so well between pop music and straight up rock is daunting, especially in a time when people want to classify music as one genre or another.
Some people might chalk these guys up as another in a long list of emo bands who are making a break for MTV and superstardom. But if Taking Back Sunday continues to put out albums of this quality, they will be sticking around much longer than any other bands of the genre.
Alex Drumm can be reached at [email protected].
