Saves The Day
Under The Boards
Vagrant/Shock


The second part in a trilogy of albums about self-discovery, emo mainstays Saves The Day's sixth studio album sees them temper the hard-edged bitterness that soaked through last year's 'Sound The Alarm' and recall the poppy-delights of career highlight 'Stay What You Are'. In the process, they've crafted their best record in years and one can only hope that 2008's concluding chapter, 'Daybreak', will finally see the band return to the lofty heights of the afore-mentioned classic.

The album opens with an undeniably killer set; the opening title track picks up were 'Sound The Alarm' left off, brooding and pessimistic, before seguing into the fist-pumping Radio. Can't Stay The Same is the best song the band has written since At Your Funeral, a brilliant and infectious combination of Save The Day's punk roots and their ever-prevalent 'Pinkerton' sensibilities. The album continues on in a pretty positive fashion for most of the duration, actually - piano-buoyed Lonely Nights works wonderfully, especially as it develops into a desperate rant from singer Chris Connelly ("is that really what I wanted to say? Cause I've never even seen you before with that sad look come on your face..."), while ballad Stay manages to make the jangly pop that dominated much-maligned fourth album 'In Reverie' sound quietly noble.

It's just a pity then that, as the album progresses, the band seems to have forced the songs to fit the concept album (this chapter's about "reflection and remorse"), as the record descends into the samey-heaviness that let down 'Sound The Alarm' on tracks like Getaway and Woe. There's some absolutely brilliant stuff here that reminds one of why people gave a shit about Saves The Day in the first place: dark lyrics, sunny melodies and inescapable pop songs. In that sense, 'Daybreak' better have a happy ending - it'd be a pity to see the trilogy end in tragedy, with the hero dying in a whirlwind of fire and too many distortion pedals.

Matt Vesely