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Taking Back Sunday - New Again
| Sputnikmusic |
| There are going to be a lot of jokes about how this album is called New Again and how Taking Back Sunday still sound basically the same as they always have, which is unfortunate because it isn't really clever at all. The album name rather obviously refers to the fact that Taking Back Sunday have suffered yet another guitarist/backup vocalist change, their third in four albums. On Tell All Your Friends, there was John Nolan, who left shortly thereafter to form the one-hit wonder band Straylight Run. Then there was Fred Mascherino, who was a member of the band for Where You Want To Be and Louder Now. On New Again, there is Matthew Fazzi. You've got to feel sort of sorry for the guy; although Mascherino has come under fire from a lot of TBS fans (and TBS themselves) because of his departure to form the awful The Color Fred, he was still well-liked, and he performed excellently during his time in the band. But there are those who still haven't gotten over the fact that John Nolan just ain't coming back, and so they scrutinize each new backup vocalist with a magnifying glass and ultimately disapprove of them....full text |
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| Kudos to Taking Back Sunday, a sensitive, surprisingly durable Long Island quintet that's weathered the departure of two lead guitarists and the general collapse of its entire weepy genre. On New Again, the emo survivors manage to reinvent themselves as mainstreamo shredders. Sure, singer Adam Lazzara still gets beaucoup mileage out of tongue-lashing his exes (girlfriends and guitarists), but on muscly tracks such as ''Lonely, Lonely'' and ''Carpathia,'' his band seems more interested in mature concerns like, y'know, rocking out. Proof it's possible to grow without growing up. A–...full text |
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| Altpress |
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Taking Back Sunday are a strange beast. Since the 2006 release of Louder Now, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Fred Mascherino left the band, and vocalist Adam Lazzara's engagement to Eisley's Chauntelle DuPree was abruptly called off, among other turbulent life events. Of course, in typical TBS fashion, these issues won't be addressed in the press. But just like the best parts of the Bible are when God gets all vengeful on people's asses, Taking Back Sunday albums shine most when frontman Adam Lazzara doesn't hold back lyrically, and because of his willingness to open up--no matter how crypticly--on many of these songs, New Again leaps forward as the best album of Taking Back Sunday's career to date. Lazzara's tongue lashings start with "Summer, Man," which was likely written about Mascherino. The song's thick, chunky riff drives the midtempo rocker through myriad indictments backed by Beach Boys-esque vocal "ooh"s (sample lyrics: "So go prove to the world what you already proved/That you just couldn't do it on your own/Let's have a talk about the good times/About how you were 'always giving in'"). Album closer "Everything Must Go" is most definitely directed toward Lazzara's ex-fiancee DuPree, with its verses telling the story of moving in together and a chorus of, "You'd quote the good book/When it's convenient/But you don't have the sense/To tie your tangled tongue" wailed by Lazzara over one of TBS' patented half-time breakdowns and some truly epic guitar spiraling. (Side note: Does any band do half-time breakdowns better than Taking Back Sunday? Is it even possible?)...full text |
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