I’ll always have fond memories of bands such as Taking Back Sunday. Throughout my teenage years, American emo bands were my main source of musical input and Taking Back Sunday were one of the genres frontrunners. Now I’m a little bit older and wiser (allegedly) and occasionally I go back and listen to the bands that were so pivotal to my adolescence.
Taking Back Sunday’s mainstream success came in 2006 after the release of Louder Now. During the years that followed there were various line up changes and Taking Back Sunday dropped off the boil. Could sixth album Happiness Is bring them back to the big time?
The thing I wondered during my first listen to the album is what sound they’d actually go for. Happiness Is marks the band’s second release to feature their revived line up of Adam Lazzara, John Nolan, Eddie Reyes, Shaun Cooper and Mark O’Connell; the same line up that gave us 2002 album Tell All Your Friends.
After the obligatory opening build-up track “Preface” comes lead single “Flicker, Fade”, which rises, falls and rises again into a huge chorus of unhinged emotive delight. It’s a track that feels like it’d been hand picked from Louder Now. “Like You Do” and “They Don’t Have Any Friends” exploit the band’s mastery of pop punk hooks as well as a never ending stockpile of big choruses. “Better Homes And Garden” carries a very effective quiet/loud dynamic as well as one of the most powerful closing minutes of any track you’re likely to hear this year.
“Stood A Chance” shows glimpses of the evolution of Taking Back Sunday, featuring a more mature style of song writing, but with the sort of heart on your sleeve, fist pumping mechanic that they have championed over the years. Fans of My Chemical Romance’s ‘Three Cheers’ era will lap it up. The melancholic “All The Way” breaks up the raw emotion shown thus far quite nicely and shows a softer almost ballad edge to Taking Back Sunday’s sound.
Lyrically, it’s much of the same that we’ve come to expect from Lazzara. Part personal, part cryptic, he isn’t shy to bare a little soul, but here the delivery makes all the difference. Whereas the songs of Taking Back Sunday of old were awash with fast-paced, shouty vocals, on Happiness Is the vocals now seem to carry a little more weight. Lazzara has proven his worth over the years, but he really excels here and is becoming a better storyteller with each passing album. “We Were Younger Then” is very circa-early 2000’s Jimmy Eat World, with it’s catchy pop punk delivery and scornful, reminiscent lyrical content. Closing the album is the beautiful string-ridden acoustic delight of “Nothing At All”.
Happiness Is is an absolute joy to listen to, whether or not you were already a fan of Taking Back Sunday to begin with. It marks an incredible evolution of a band that many were quick to write off with the passing of the emo rock parade of the mid-2000’s, but they have since come back with a more refined, mature alt rock sound that is more about longevity than just a flash in the pan anthem to tug teenage heart strings. Where many other bands of their ilk have fallen by the wayside, Taking Back Sunday have shown a whole new side of their song writing with songs that both infect and entertain. If you do one thing this week then MakeDamnSure you listen to Happiness Is. You won’t regret it.
Rating: 4.5/5