Taking Back Sunday is "New Again"

 If you haven't heard, melodic post-hardcore band Taking Back Sunday just released the follow-up album to 2006's Louder Now ("Liar (it takes one to know one)" and "Makedamnsure").  With a successful record like Louder Now you can be that the guys are doing everything they can to promote their new album aptly titled New Again.  Last night they played on Jimmy Kimmel Live and giving out hand-written tablature cards of "Sink Into Me."  In heart-warming news the guys will be playing Rock Band for a good cause.  So if you're in the New Orleans area June 14th, you can play Rock Band with TBS to support the New Orleans Children's Hospital (collective "aww" here please).  If you're not in New Orleans they're
on tour for the summer and will be playing with Blink and Weezer in July.  

In the latest trend in the age of digital music, Taking Back Sunday is streaming their new album New Again in its ENTIRETY on their MySpace. Each track is fresh and well written.  The album as a whole is guitar-heavy in a great way and it works really well with Adam Lazzara's melodic voice (thus still in the band's melodic post-hardcore tradition).  On the band's MySpace Lazzara says that the lyrics for New Again are "real autobiographical, whereas normally I try to mask all that just so people can take whatever they want from it."  While the album's lyrics are more autobiographical it doesn't mean you can't relate to them.  The album will evoke the angst inside of you in the best possible way.

 "New Again"— Beautiful guitar with a steady beat.  It's an anthem for the band, which aggressively proclaims that they're "ready to be new again".A great opening track.    

"Sink Into Me"— A lighter song, which balances out the song on either side of it on the album.  Great songwriting.

"Lonely, Lonely"— If I had to pick a song I'm not crazy about, this would be it.  It's a little heavier than the previous two tracks.  The chorus just feels contrived; I found the song uninteresting because of the lyrics.

"Summer Man"— A great song for late summer, before school starts.  An anthem for those of us sick of responsibilities (that would be ALL of us, don't deny).  I love the song, but I don't want the summer to be over.

"Swing"— Heavy guitar chords with lighter, more intricate notes layered makes for an angsty song that doesn't leave the listener in an angry mood, but instead leaves the listener refreshed. 

"Where My Mouth Is"— So the opening sounds EXACTLY like U2's With or Without You.  This made me hate the song for all of 5 seconds.  Good thing I kept listening, because they're definitely not trying to be U2.  A good ballad which wasn't put on the record solely for the sake of having a ballad.

"Cut Me Up Jenny"— Love at first note.  The song is just so emotive.  

"Catholic Knees"— Took me a while to get into this song, but it was worth the wait.  Forceful.  

"Capital M-E"— A song about disappointing others and getting past it.  Hopeful?  I think so. 

"Carpathia"— Driving guitar.  An overall good track, different from the others on the album.

"Everything Must Go"— More mature than the rest of the songs lyrically.  The perfect song to close out the album.

 I'll be honest.  I'm a little torn about just how good I think the album is.  Sometimes I think it's brilliant, but other times it's just mediocre.  So I'll settle for the middle and say it was "pretty darn good" and I overall recommend the album.  What do you think?  Do you like the album?  Does "Where My Mouth Is" sound like "With or Without You"?  Last thing, I promise, REMEMBER new album=new tour!

Can someone find me a picture where Adam Lazzara doesn't look like a tool?