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A Day to Remember – Homesick

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. Melody Bot Feb 8, 2019
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    For as long as I can recall, A Day to Remember have been that strange mixture of incredibly divisive and inarguably popular within the scene. Being a (female) ADTR fan in 2009 looked like this: If people (let’s be real; mostly men) weren’t calling you “soft” for liking the band to begin with, they were heavily implying that you only liked the ~pretty~ tracks, like “If It Means a Lot to You” or “Have Faith In Me” (which are both bangers, by the way). The band apparently were too hardcore for the pop punk bros, and too pop punk for the hardcore kids. To put a finer and entirely subjective point on that observation: then as now, both the pop-punk and hardcore purists were enraged by a band that refuses to call themselves either, yet excels at both. When Homesick dropped ten years ago, I was a senior in high school. While they weren’t my absolute favorite band, they were up there. I wasn’t writing about music yet at the time, but I loved the record. Upon listening as a fully formed adult ten years later, my opinion remains largely unchanged.

    The first thing that strikes me is how well this record has aged. Its sound – at least, amongst the places where hardcore and pop punk intersect – could have been released today. At the same time, the songs in retrospect listen like a time capsule of sorts. They hold up as a perfect example of where the scene’s music was at the time – a microcosm that takes every existing element and represents it perfectly, while never fully committing to it. That’s the apparent ethos of A Day to Remember, and you can hear it on each track: the reason for their popularity and the reason for their divisiveness are one and the same. They are no more willing to subscribe to the mindset of the clique-ish purists of hardcore than they are to the quirky “I hate this town” ethos of pop punk, despite dabbling in and mastering both sounds. I can honestly see why it’s aggravating to some; it’s sort of like that one kid everyone knew in school who didn’t obsess over your favorite subject the way you did, but always seemed to have the right answers in class.

    Thematically, Homesick revolves around several recurring points: pressures of the music industry, realities of life on the road, revenge on those who’ve wronged you and internal struggles with sense of identity/being true to oneself. Throughout the years, McKinnon has demonstrated his incredibly underrated prowess as a lyricist. Nowhere is this more evident on this record than on tracks like “Another Song About the Weekend” or the album’s namesake, “Homesick.” Perhaps that’s why the deluxe version featured acoustic versions of those two tracks in particular.

    While not my favorite effort from the band in the year 2019, it’s easy to listen to it and hear how it was the launching point for everything that followed it in the past decade, culminating for this listener in 2013’s liberation-from-Victory-Records-testimonial Common Courtesy. Everything else aside, I’m hard-pressed to think of many other albums that had so many memorable moments (meme-orable?) that had very little to do with the actual music – from the cough in “I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of” to the gang vocals-turned punch line that open the record to the meme-ready ‘Disrespect your surroundings’ on “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End”, this album is serves not only as a flawless embodiment of damn near every scene trend of its time, but as something that still today is recognizable even beyond the band’s considerable fanbase. If that doesn’t make something iconic, what does?

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  2. parkerxcore Feb 8, 2019
    parkerxcore

    Somebody's gonna miss us Supporter

    I was a junior in high school when this record dropped and the ADTR, ABR, Silverstein, and Go Radio show was a highlight of my senior year, but this record did not age well to me :worried: I wish it did.
     
  3. josh- Feb 8, 2019
    josh-

    Twitter: @joshcaraballin

    Really good point about the Meme-orange lines on this thing. I will be saying DISRESPECT YOUR SURROUNDINGS for the rest of my life
     
    Analog Drummer, chilllll, SuNDaYSTaR and 4 others like this.
  4. theasteriskera Feb 8, 2019
    theasteriskera

    Trusted Supporter

    This couldn't be more spot on with how I feel about this record. I always had a really soft spot for "Homesick" & "Another Song About the Weekend", I'm glad they chose those 2 for the acoustic tracks. Thanks for this review @Anna Acosta !!
     
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  6. oldjersey Feb 8, 2019
    oldjersey

    Pro Podcaster Supporter

    Been forever since I listened to this album, first paragraph is so accurate haha. Gonna pop it on today.
     
    Analog Drummer, Jared Luttrell and Anna Acosta like this.
  7. Mister Lyrical Feb 8, 2019
    Mister Lyrical

    Forging Clarity Supporter

    You forgot Enter Shikari was on that bill too!
     
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  8. parkerxcore Feb 8, 2019
    parkerxcore

    Somebody's gonna miss us Supporter

    That's riiiight. It was a banger. Fox Theater, Pomona.
     
  9. theredline Feb 8, 2019
    theredline

    Trusted Supporter

    I must have missed all that! I’ve always liked pop punk and heavy stuff so, for me, they were the perfect mix!
     
    Anna Acosta likes this.
  10. Zoshchenko Feb 8, 2019
    Zoshchenko

    Trusted Supporter

    Great read!

    ADTR was my world in high school. Homesick leaked when we had a snow day in 2009 and I remember listening to it for 12 hours straight. It’s been a while, so I’m definitely going to revisit it today
     
    Anna Acosta and MexicanGuitars like this.
  11. cosmickid Feb 8, 2019
    (Last edited: Feb 10, 2019)
    cosmickid

    Composer, but never composed.

    You can slap this album on and enjoy the whole thing front to back with ease which is crazy considering it's an album that opens with an acapella breakdown and closes with an acoustic song and also somehow has 4/5 tracks which are pretty intense metal. This is definitely in my top 5 albums ever. Love ADTR.
     
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  12. Oskarr Feb 8, 2019
    Oskarr

    Needled 24/7

    They snuck up on me as a favorite band in highschool. I wouldn't have identified them as such either but they basically were.

    And I was just revistiting their music, literally just yesterday, and Homesick is indeed still a jam :o
     
    Anna Acosta likes this.
  13. Ryan Feb 8, 2019
    Ryan

    Might be Spider-Man...

    I remember being a kid and finding them on PureVolume when they were nobody. But I loved this record, now I wanna listen to it.
     
    Anna Acosta likes this.
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  15. Michael Schmidt Feb 8, 2019
    Michael Schmidt

    Don't recreate the scene, or reinvent the meanings Supporter

    I didn't listen to this band much or care for this record, but somehow I kept reading the review. This is a very good review. Descriptive and articulate, but also fairly concise.
     
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  16. Drew Beringer Feb 8, 2019
    Drew Beringer

    @drewberinger / we dogs Moderator

    I will always mosh on command no matter what I'm doing when I hear DISRESPECT YOUR SURROUNDINGS
     
    Jared Luttrell, Stephen Young, SuNDaYSTaR and 6 others like this.
  17. MexicanGuitars Feb 8, 2019
    MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

    Shikari was on this bill too. ADTR, ABR, Silverstein, and them were among my friends and I's favorite bands. I still remember where i was when this tour news dropped haha. Still one of my favorite show memories.

    Edit: Someone beat me to it lol.
     
    sawhney[rusted]2 likes this.
  18. Mister Lyrical Feb 8, 2019
    Mister Lyrical

    Forging Clarity Supporter

    Lol I definitely saw the news for that tour on AP.net
     
    Jason Tate likes this.
  19. MexicanGuitars Feb 8, 2019
    MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

    I was at baseball practice lol
     
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  20. Leftandleaving Feb 9, 2019
    Leftandleaving

    I will be okay. everything Supporter

    I don't really listen to this band anymore, but this was a really good review. meme-orable is a great word that I am stealing btw
     
    Anna Acosta likes this.
  21. heymattrick Feb 10, 2019
    heymattrick

    Sending my love

    I'M LEAVING AND NOT COMING BACK
    YOU'RE RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG
     
    Anna Acosta likes this.
  22. K0ta Feb 11, 2019
    K0ta

    wrap yourself in petals for armor.

    30 year old me still wants to disrespect my surroundings so fuck yeah I still love this album.

    I didn't listen to these guys until about 2008 cause a friend of mine was always saying how bad they were and that they didn't know if they were a pop-punk or a hardcore band. I don't know why I listened to him for as long as I did because I finally listened to FTWHH and was like....this is dope! And I've been a fan ever since.

    Really great point about being a girl and liking this band. You really couldn't win in any scene you were in back then. If you liked pop-punk you were soft, if you liked a lot of hardcore or post-hardcore bands like I did they wondered what dude got you into them and who were you trying to impress. ADTR did live on the edge of both worlds and imo are super impressive in that they did both really well and were fun as hell.
     
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  24. wrenleslie Feb 11, 2019
    wrenleslie

    Newbie

    Love to see some appreciation for Common Courtesy! Thinking back to this era when listening to City of Ocala or I Remember really brings some nostalgic tears to my eyes.
     
    Analog Drummer and Anna Acosta like this.
  25. Jared Luttrell Feb 11, 2019
    Jared Luttrell

    Regular

    I loved this album to death my senior year of high school. Honestly all three of their early albums were special to me at the time, I'm not sure why I stopped listening or following the band, the follow up record didn't stick with me and I kinda tuned out afterwards. Maybe I need to see what they've been up to in the years since.
     
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