‘Louder
Now’ a new sound for TBS fans
everywhere
By
Matthew Wilkinson
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Taking Back Sunday’s newest release couldn’t be titled more appropriately. “Louder
Now” is an 11-song effort full of louder, faster and more intense rock ‘n’ roll
songs. While newer fans and rock radio might embrace this change, it leaves
older fans feeling a little alienated and unsatisfied.
When Long Island, N.Y., quintet Taking Back Sunday went into the studio to
record its debut CD for Warner Brothers Records, they were itching to get rid
of the “emo” label.
“
A lot of genres come and go,” singer/guitarist Fred Mas-cherino said
backstage in Oregon.
“
And if we were to just mark ourselves by a certain sound or a certain genre
than when that fell out of fashion that would pretty much be the end of our
band. We would like to stick around.”
Warner Bros. went out and got famous rock producer Eric Valentine (Third Eye
Blind, Queens of the Stone Age) to make the record. He wanted to push the guys
hard to get a new sound out of them.
From the first seconds of “What’s It Feel Like to be a Ghost,” the
first track on the album, you can tell it’s a different Taking Back Sunday.
It starts off with a Foo Fighters-esque guitar riff before drummer Mark O’Connell
comes in punishing the drums. Singer Adam Lazzara’s distorted vocals
join the party and add a good amount of depth and eeriness to the track that
talks about going through life unnoticed.
The second track “Liar (It Takes One to Know One)” has the exact
same feel. All the elements of music really team up together and declare war
on your eardrums.
“
We wanted to get more of the energy that we feel that we have live that hasn’t
really come across before on a record,”
Mascherino said. “I think since we kept that in mind the whole time we
were making the record that’s what gave it that intense feeling.”
The only song on the record that has the old Taking Back Sunday feel is the
CD’s first single “MakeDamnSure.” This track lets Lazzara’s
vocals return to their non-distorted, simple form as he sings along to a steady
beat before peaking with “I just want to break you down so badly.”
The seventh song on the disc, “Spin,” proves the band can be best
at its loudest. The track kicks off with distorted guitar riffs before heading
into intense dueling guitars from Eddie Reyes and Mascherino with crashing
drums and a heavy bass line from Matt Rubano. The song is completed with Mascherino’s
screaming chorus, “You had your chance.”
“
Divine Intervention” is the album’s one shot at a softer side.
Although pretty, this song doesn’t come anywhere near the power and emotion
the band conveys on some of its previous attempts. Lazzara’s vocals sound
too distorted to be sincere. If you’re looking for a really good Taking
Back Sunday ballad, check out “New American Classic” or “Your
Own Disaster.”
“
Louder Now” shows a new side of Taking Back Sunday. It is of no longer
heartbroken teenagers full of hormones and angst, they have grown into a mature
rock band. While the most famous lyric “you could slit my throat, and
with my one last gasping breath I’d apologize for bleeding on your shirt” might
go down in the emo hall-of-fame, Taking Back Sunday is working hard to make
sure it doesn’t.
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