I'd be more stoked for new solo stuff from John Nolan. His last album was some of his best stuff to date. I'm still pretty excited though.
Would be WAY more amped for some Straylight Run. I personally feel like John's solo work sounds incredibly generic.
Didn't like happiness is, but aside from that tbs is one of the most consistent bands I can think of. Still very excited for this
Take out "They don't have any friends", "Beat Up Car", and "Nothing At All" and replace them with the b-sides and that record would have been perfect.
TBS has always had the best b-sides. Straylight Run would be great as well. I have a signed poster of theirs in my master bathroom, so I think about them every bowel movement. Did you listen to Sad Strange Beautiful Dream though? Shaun Cooper played bass on it, so that's half of Straylight Run right there.
To me, their self titled came off almost as a complication record of random songs they did and just threw together
I love Taking Back Sunday....they are horrible live though....that doesn't stop me from going to their shows though. Ha.
I think they can be hit or miss. I've seen some pretty crappy shows (The Used co headliner tour) and some pretty great performances (TAYF10, Self-Titled summer tour)
and its officially live Edit: I really like the direction they have taken with the vocals, better than trying to hide the shift in Adam's singing style and musically its solid. I can hear the influences but its still taking back Sunday for sure.
I've seen TBS twice and they were great both times. Adam sounded good, the band was tight. I've heard all the stories about how bad they are, but I must have just gotten them on good nights.
Seen them live 3 times (Once with Spencer from Underoath on vocals because Adam had to leave the tour for the premature birth of his child), and all 3 times they sounded amazing.
I think they sounded good years ago...during the Louder Now era and prior...after that they went down hill....I still look forward to seeing them every time they come to town.
The self-titled has some of my all-time favorite TBS songs on it, though. I can't say that about Happiness Is... despite it having a couple decent tracks. The thing for me is that they did a lot of things they had never done before but I didn't much enjoy those things, unfortunately. A lot of it just felt boring and lifeless to me, none of the energy they had on any previous release. I will say, though, that I generally agree about New Again being unjustly maligned in terms of their overall discography. That album is way better than its reputation.
I agree that Self titled has a lot of strong tracks despite not being cohesive. El Paso, Best Places To Be A Mom, Call Me In The Morning, This Is All Now, and You Got Me are all really solid.