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Taking Back SundayLouder Now Warners I've got a confession to make. I'm a huge Taking Back Sunday fan. That's not it - unlike apparently everyone else, I don't have a problem with emo. The confession is that, despite my unabashed love for debut 'Tell All Your Friends' and joyful reverence of follow-up 'Where You Want To Be,' I doubted that TBS were more than a one-trick-pony facing an inevitable slide into mediocrity. When I feverishly downloaded new single MakeDamnSure the second I knew of its existence, it seemed the by-the-numbers TBS song that offered no surprises had confirmed my suspicions. Here's the next confession: I freakin' love MakeDamnSure. How could I not? I freakin' love Taking Back Sunday. But, more importantly, I deserve a prompt slap across the face for doubting my heroes. Major label debut 'Louder Now' isn't the emo-poster-boy 'Where You Want To Be Pt. 2' I was expecting - and I knew that ten seconds in. Opener What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost? is a rock juggernaut, from its dirty garage riff to its thunderous rhythm section, and so too is 'Louder Now.' This is barely an emo album - the New Yorkers have let loose their inner rock demons and let them run rampant across the full forty minutes. The dual-vocal emo-mayhem the band is famous for takes a back seat on tracks like Up Against (Blackout), which thumps out of the speakers, fervently driven by a staccato rhythm; while the frenetic Spin and the simply amazing burst that is Error Operator are breathlessly loud - then there's Miami, which has a guitar solo. Yep. Guitar. Solo. They haven't forgotten their roots - the trademark Taking Back Sunday bass-bridge and primo Adam Lazzara vocal melodies are still there, but are made all the more enjoyable when delivered with such balls. Sure, the album is also more mainstream radio-rock than its predecessors, but hell, it fits the band like a glove. They do push it too far in places - the chorus to Twenty-Twenty Surgery is absolutely naff - but when you take the screamo band who are quite simply better than anyone else at being a screamo band and turn them into a rock band there's only one thing to be done: turn the stereo up louder. Now.  |
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