TBS second album came up basically because of high demand by the bands followers. If it wasn't the followers pressuring Taking Back Sunday to record an album so fast I would suggest to you that this could be a classic album.
My first review of this album was pretty biased, in a bad way. People around me who had never got the meaning of Punk music had called Taking Back Sunday "Sellouts". The truth is a band cannot be a sellout unless they totally change their genre. I would suggest to you that Linkin Park would be sellouts for starting a rap duet with the critically acclaimed rapper Jay Z. But I wouldn't tell you that Radiohead [KID A, Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief] are being sellouts because the album before all these [Ok Computer] was a work of genius that was sellout in it's own way because it was done so well.
Tell All Your Friends was screaming, fast paced, PUNK not Emo. Where You Want To Be is slow down smoother version of Punk. Therefore Taking Back Sunday did not sellout. And again you have to take in the fact that this cd was recorded in one month so Taking Back Sunday did a hell of a job on this album.
The first song on here kicks out with another Taking Back Sunday saying that is so catchy it doesn't have to make sense. "Say Yes, Say Yes" is the repeated background vocal said throughout this song. I think, that this make the song more interesting. As if the chorus didn't make it interesting enough. The lyric really repeated throughout this song is, "I'm sorry it took me so long". Which is indeed an apology to the fans of Taking Back Sunday for how long they had to wait for the necked baby covered album. But Taking Back Sunday shouldn't have to apologize...
The screaming vocally gifted, background singer of Tell All Your Friends, named John Nolan. John left the band to pursue future goals of new music with his wife. That took a whole dimension away from Taking Back Sunday. The band was struggling, the band picked up their new singer Fred Mascherino, Fred added a screaming ability that wasn't as great as Nolan's but can still be used in certain hard rock ways [Louder Now available April 25, 2006].
The first song on the album gets my attention because it is a mellow, nice song and a good first song to the album. 4/5
Bonus Mosh Pit Pt.2 is what in fact Taking Back Sunday next album will be named for the song says, " So scream louder now", but the repition in this song really throws me off. This album could be a 5 if the early album repition wasn't so high. The chorus is so simple, but if it was something special or elegant this song could soar to amazing heights. But the chemistry between the band-mates in the songwriting field isn't high enough to make this song a classic. But it is still a solid effort with some great moments. 4/5
A Decade Under The Influence was a song we all loved, until it got to much publicity. The song went from a nice song with a catchy chorus [similar to the first song], to an over publicitized MTV product. What MTV did was make this song a happy pop-punk song, which in my opinion ruined the song. The song was supposed to be well simply a man in a relationship, and the couple broke up because of her friends didn't like him. It wasn't supposed to be a happy song. I give this song a 5/5 for the original song, and a 3.5/5 for the MTV song
I Know You Know is one of the best songs on the album. It was the first time on the album that I can remember that the instrumental work really fit in with the song. And their are great supporting lyrics for the first time The chorus is sub-par compared to the other songs but it still works. 5/5
By the time I was listening to this in the summer of 2004, for the first time. Back then I didn't know the new singers the band had went through and the slight change of musical style. Therefore the Union, which would have been normal on Tell All Your Friends, was abstract and experimental on Where You Want To Be. But the way KID A was experimental the Union is experimental which makes it perfect, the hard rock music and the half-hearted screaming or attempted screaming of Adam makes this song complete and one of the best on the album, the only negative I can find is that the song is just over two minutes and thirty seconds long, it could have been longer. 4.9/5
I would have never expected New American Classic an acoustic song, which is lyrically driven about peace, this just after an instrumentally lead song about war. It is kind of unexpected but in my opinion this is the only negative of the song. Fred's singing comes to life for the fist time in a while and Fred and Adam feed of each other the way Adam and John Nolan did on the Album Tell All Your Friends. This is not the greatest song on the album, but it still works. 4/5
I Am Fred Astaire is the next track and probably should have been replaced by a catchier "Follow The Format" or the CD could have just gone to a controversial ten track CD. The song is pointless in my opinion, because unlike other songs the chorus doesn't flow well with the other supporting lyrics, which really throw the song off. 2/5
One-Eighty By Summer has the most memorable line and catch phrase of the cd, but doesn't have much more since the line is repeated in the chorus, but it makes the song different and better than some of the other songs. I know it might sound weird but some of the lines in this song prove to over shadow the mediocre chorus that fills these songs. As apparent as it is in other songs it is the most important in this song that Adam's vocals have improved. The song has a great ending, which I can't recall a better Taking Back Sunday ending since the fan-favorite Cute Without The E. A good song but not a great song. 4/5
The spot of the song on the album and the lyrics may not work but the song still does in, "Number Five With A Bullet", the lyrics only make since towards the end and the chrous which is repeated several times makes no since at all. But for once a pop-punks instrumentals pull them through a song even though the lyrics don't. The beat is simillar to One Eighty By Summers but is more tweaked up guitar wise which makes the song an enjoyable listen. 3/5
Little Devotional is a chilled out song. Which I think this album is built for, the more chilled out songs the better. The song has a great beat and basically is about the band not taking their lady's manners seriously:
"You've always been a lady, I've always been impressed"
But it also brings up the fact that us gentlemen are supposed to behave in a certain way and was not allowed to ask questions, but was supposed to pay attention to a lady's redundant questions. This is what I picked up from the mess of complicated lyrics in this song, but again you have to tip your hat to Fred and Matt for making this song work instrumentally wise as well, overall it's a nice and relaxed song. 4.5/5
The conclusion of this album I wouldn't describe as epic, in part because I also described "Paranoid Android and Bohiem Rhapsody" epic. A better word for it would be awesome. The lyrics here are so great, and the chorus is great as well. Well let’s just say it does all three parts of the song well. The song is Adam's Testimony of growing up in the south [NC!], which makes it a great conclusion to the album. Love it. 5/5
Conclusion:
Pros:
Great Lyrics
Improved Vocals
Fred Debut
Headed in the right direction
Cons:
Somewhat miss the Tell All Your Friends
I am Fred Astaire
What I think makes a good album is consistency and this album has it each song besides the 7th track received at least a 60 percent which makes this album in my opinion a must buy.
