This is my micro-review of the new Taking Back Sunday album, due out June 2nd. If you aren’t a fan or familiar with their previous work you might want to skip over this.
For those of you who don’t know, New Again is the follow up album to Taking Back Sunday’s gold-certified previous record Louder Now (2006).
Their previous guitarist Fred Mascherino left and they added a new a guitarist in Matt Fazzi. I just listened to the album for the first time and wrote down my thoughts, stream of consciousness…
- New Again – First song we got to hear from the album. I loved this song when it came out and I still do, very strong opening.
- Sink Into Me – The first single, I was really into this song when it first came out, but now it is starting to lose some of its replay value. Dig the lyrics of the chorus.
- Lonely, Lonely – Its like they said in the interviews, relentless. I thought it was a little repetitive but think it will grow on me.
- Summer, Man – Love it, I imagined it to be a bit faster paced, but is definitely a perfect song for this summer.
- Swing – Was looking forward to this since Marrs mentioned it on in his interview with them. I REALLY like it. The guitar reminds me of a less in your face Spin (off Louder Now). First chorus that has really stuck in my head. One of the stronger songs on the album.
Note: Adam is absolutely killing it vocally so far – strongest he has ever been IMO
- Where My Mouth Is – unexpected slow down with this song, doesn’t really sound like TBS to me. Caught me a little off guard, not bad but not one of my favorites so far.
- Cut Me Up Jenny – Another song I was looking forward to hearing – didn’t really do it for me. I enjoy it but I think the “Cut Me Up Jenny’s” get really repetitive at the end. Edit: After a few repeat listens this song has really grown on me
- Catholic Knees – Didn’t really get into the live version that was released on vinyl but I like the recorded version better. Seems to kind of drag, like the tempo should be faster.
- Capital M-E – this song is about Fred, damn. I think I can connect better with this song because I know what its about, I think its catchy and I like it a lot.
- Carpathia – Most all of us have heard this. Not great, but not bad, just a good song. Noticed the tie into Everything Must Go at the end.
- Everything Must Go – Strongest closing track of any TBS CD and maybe one of the best songs they’ve written. I think it gets a little repetitive in the second half (after the “I’d be a fool to have asked for more”) but easily the most powerful track on the album.
Overall based on my first listen I really enjoy the CD. More than I enjoyed Louder Now on its first listen. I think that it is being released at the perfect time since it is an awesome Summer Soundtrack.
Adam’s vocals are amazing and I am really digging the direction the band is taking with Fazzi, I think with some more time together the band will grow and their next album will be amazing.
The biggest down fall is length, three of the songs don’t even clock in at 3 minutes and two others are just barely over that. The length clocks in at 37:57, not as short at their first album Tell All Your Friends (~33 min), but significantly shorter than Where You Want To Be (~42 min) and Louder Now (~45 min)
Stand Out Tracks: Summer, Man, Swing, Everything Must Go
Leave a Reply