by Dan Solera "www.ragelink.com" Evanston, IL USA Reviewed on August 15th, 2004
It seems that New Jersey is the new punk rock epicenter with outstanding bands like Midtown and the Starting Line emerging from its premises. As you've probably already guessed, the Taking Back Sunday quintet was also born from this state. Whether this has anything to do with anything is anybody's guess. Onwards.
What people enjoy (and what bands hate) calling the emo movement is something growing in both representation and appeal. I guess music fans are enjoying the movement for its brutal honesty and intimate connection. Straying away from elusive metaphors and complex metonymies, the bands involved in this particular rock genre throw their problems and issues in your face, regardless of interpretation and perspective. They sing about suburban problems, the pains of growing up, and girls, girls, girls...
Taking Back Sunday, in my opinion, is the most characteristic of this genre (besides maybe Dashboard Confessional). Songs like "Great Romances of the 20th Century" and "Ghost Man on Third" epitomize the genre's desire to be explicitly emotional and powerful at the same time. Their biggest strength is the vocal arrangement (along with their impressively creative way of writing lyrics and naming songs). This band utilizes two distinct vocalists, in the same fashion as Thursday and Finch (a detail that has earned them the sub-category of "screamo"). However, they do so in a way that can be considered the new Savatage (this, of course, is for the sake of comparison and is not a valid statement). While one singer repeats one line a number of times, the second sings completely different lines over him.
So, what kind of music are they, exactly? Well, you can do this two different ways. You can listen to Thursday's "Understanding in a Car Crash" and imagine an entire CD modeled after that song. I was surprised by Full Collapse; it was something altogether different than what I thought it would be. Tell All Your Friends is, in a way, the sound I was looking for. Or you can imagine Dashboard Confessional with distortion, heavy drums, and a second screaming voice. Some people don't like the sound because they feel that bands are only singing about how pathetic their lives are, or why their ex-girlfriends are whores, but Taking Back Sunday do something more. I think they seriously expose the emotion behind these issues, and the often-grizzly consequences that they beget.
"Best friends mean you pull the trigger... best friends mean you get what you deserve." "Will you tell all your friends, you've got your gun to my head, this all was only wishful thinking"
Recommendations: "You Know How I Do", "Great Romances of the 20th Century", "Ghost Man on Third", "There's no `I' in Team", "Cute Without the `E' (Cut From the Team)"
Lyrics contained within GoldLyrics.com subject to US Copyright Laws and are the property of their respective authors, artists and labels. If you like the lyrics, GoldLyrics.com encourages you to buy the CDs of the albums and whenever possible, GoldLyrics.com gives a link, where you can buy the album.
