Review Summary: S'old Again
There's a lot to be written and said about how the pop-punk bands that have been around the longest habitually try on new skins. Just last week I was waxing theoretical about the different shapes blink-182 tried on for their big Tomback, including but not limited to: straight-ahead revival of their classic sound, giving their old signifiers a facelift via modern sensibilities or just outright pandering to the worst parts of what their newest demographic ostensibly likes. Yellowcard doubled down on their most beloved sound to safe but undeniably thrilling results, while Anberlin got weird with it, throwing the kitchen sink at their sound until it was barely recognisable. With a new good blink album in the rearview and a promising one from Green Day in the headlights, turn-of-the-century pop-punk is staring down a surprisingly healthy future if it can keep its shit together for more than an album cycle. All of which leads to my question: what happens when a band that didn't need the reinvention voluntarily takes a makeover anyway?
Taking Back Sunday's evolution was always more of a slow roll: you can hear in basically real-time how seeds are planted and grown in their discography, how "Call Me in the Morning"'s gentle acoustic sway bloomed into full-on country twang bit by bit. But after 7 years between albums, a stopgap as long as Yellowcard's entire breakup and reformation, Taking Back Sunday had the option to keep that momentum chugging or make a hard left. Yes, this is the Taking Back Sunday of 2023, with a fresh sheen of busy production and a 10-song tracklist which blurs by in barely more than half an hour, Adam Lazzara sounding like a man a decade younger with some generous helping of pitch correction and shorter songs.
Happiness Is and
Tidal Wave were quiet triumphs of late career songwriting, pulling together a growing inclination towards heartland rock with the slowburning supernovas John Nolan favours in his solo work for two very strong album packages. Neither did the numbers that
152 could do with an assist from new producer Tushar Apte, boardsman for Steve Aoki during his recent run-in with Taking Back Sunday. Apte's influence goes well beyond the radio-friendly shimmer of the songs; if the press releases are to be believed, up to encouraging the band to strip their songwriting down to the essentials and build all over again. No country stompers, ambient-tinged ballads or surreal autotuned bridges to be found here; in their place the blatant Killers tribute "The One", throwback punk powerhouse "S'old", syrupy torch song "I Am The Only One Who Knows You".
Objectively, it's the right move for a band so long gone to return with a simple, digestible version of themselves. It's the TBS reboot, folks - less depth but easier on the eyes and ears, the kind of album they likely had in mind when they instead ended up with their self-titled misfire, even down to the easy fan-pleasing simplicity of the 152 title. And while the nuances and flow of
Tidal Wave are, at least by me, dearly missed, there are moments on
152 where the band sound completely re-energised. Album highlight "Keep Going" is their best adrenaline shot to the vein in years, and you can almost see the wicked grins on Nolan and Lazzara's faces while they yell in tandem about a "boot-stomping blood-letting son of a bitch". The flickering flame of opener "Amphetamine Smiles" is nicely atypical for the band, more reminiscent of Nolan's superb last solo effort
Abendigo, while the questionably titled "Juice 2 Me" boasts the catchiest hook from the boys in years. For each of these peaks there's a trough. The easy targets are "Quit Trying", where Apte's frankly ugly production clashes infuriatingly with the meat of the song, and "The Stranger", which breaks a near-flawless streak of outstanding closers in this discography with an underwhelming anticlimax.
It's still interesting to hear Taking Back Sunday with an outside hand so firmly on the wheel, even as the highs and lows of their collaboration with Apte result in something more uneven than this reboot needed to stick. "Go big or go home", Lazzara wisely croons through layers of polish on "The One"; maybe next time around Taking Back Sunday will match their lofty ambitions with a few more ideas.
