Their real black sheep album will be Tidal Wave in the future. If they release say two or three more albums, which definitely isn't guaranteed, I think that one will be the most divisive. I hear such a scattered things about it and that's only when I actually hear people talk about it which is never.
That’s all fair and I don’t disagree that all that could have been factors here. With that said; if they had indeed planned to record 4 years after Tidal Wave - I would have hoped that it would be something more exciting and new than this. Who knows, maybe the rest of the new album will blow me away. I’ll happily eat crow if so (I want to love this band again) but I’m expecting it to be like the rest of the post-reunion records have been for me: some solid tracks, some forgettable tracks, and some clunkers.
i fucking love self-titled, el paso rips and best places to be a mom is one of their best songs. they never play it and that makes me a sad panda
El Paso is indeed a ripper but damn… that album was the start of the decline of this band for me. It’s also a cautionary tale of be careful what you wish for.. John and Shaun are back?? They’re back with Eric Valentine who did LN?! No way this sucks! Narrator’s voice: but it did suck
This year alone there's been a few albums that have surprised me with how different the album quality is compared to the singles released and it goes in both directions. I really liked "pls set me on fire" by Enter Shikari and the album was (in my opinion) not up to that quality and didn't persist with that vibe throughout the album. It's always a crapshoot. Singles can be super misleading and don't paint an accurate picture. The biggest example I can remember that hugely disappointed me (and I don't want to get into a whole thing because I know the lead singer is scum) but Say Anything's album Anarchy, My Dear was so so different than "Burn A Miracle".
S/T falls of a cliff after the first 3 tracks. This is all Now and It Doesn't Feel a Thing recover it a bit but yeah probably my least favorite overall. I've grown to appreciate Happiness Is quite a bit. Might be tied with New Again for 4th best album.
I never fall in line with the "oh the demos are better" stuff but even raw I like those better than half the album
I don't think it sucked I just think it was too scattered. They didn't do a good job of balancing nostalgia and new ideas. There was a huge positive reaction to John coming back from what I remember and I think they wanted to capitalize on that but did it very poorly.
I agree about them trying to balance nostalgia and new ideas which didn’t go over well but I personally just think most of the tracks aren’t well written aside from Best Places, El Paso, and Sad Savior. This Is All Now is alright too.
Has anyone ever asked the band what the actual hell they were thinking with the album cover to their S/T? Would love to hear an answer from them on that. It’s horrible and reminds me of Reboot lol
I don't know anything about the clearly drug induced decision making that led to that album cover, but if they don't name their last album "Taken Back Sunday" I'll be real upset.
Always loved this Self Titled b side. El Paso, This is All Now and Best Places are all top tier. Falling, Call Me and You Got Me are decent. Take those 6 songs and combine with 4 of the b sides and you’ve got yourself a great album.
I see more and more acts do this these days. Build momentum with single after single then the album announcement happens latter so they're caught up with vinyl production or something. Sucks for the fans who have to wait longer but it makes sense for bands like this one considering I also see so many album rollouts pretty much stop once the full thing is out. Reminds me of the way Japanese acts operate. I think about that post from earlier pages that said that they missed a beat by not breaking up and reuniting a few years later like Yellowcard, Anberlin and others did. There's probably some truth to it. I also wonder if the 2010 OG line up reunion happened too soon somehow... especially when the album that followed was at odds with what the fanbase wanted. The nostalgia wave for early 00s scene stuff hadn't hit yet for them to suddenly regain more momentum so it feels like they've been stalling for more than a decade now.
It’s wild in retrospect that they released New Again in June 2009, announced the reunion line-up the following spring, and had their self-titled out June 2011. I’d say maybe the speed of all that is why the reunion album is a few top tier bangers and lot of mediocrity (maybe they were rediscovering how to be a band again)… Alas, those two follow-ups didn’t really leave much more of an impression on me. Hopefully this new one is the kinda focused, tight, catchy rock album I believe they still have in them!
Pleased by The One. A bit on the repetitive side but I love the production flourishes and John getting his own parts to shine is a good sign of things to come. The snippet at the end reminds me of the moodier stuff from Happiness Is even though the drum fill hints at a banger.