Taking Back Sunday's New Again

The New York rockers of Taking Back Sunday have finally released their newest effort, New Again, on June 2nd. Having since lost (and replaced) an integral member of the group, vocalist and guitarist Fred Mascherino, the bandmates are trying to prove they can still rock without him. With the addition of Matthew Fazzi, Taking Back Sunday's sound is altered from that which fans are most familiar. Absent from this release is one of the things that made prior Taking Back Sunday albums so distinctive in sound--dual lead singers. This album still has its fair share of backing vocals, but the lines do not combat each other as they used to. What follows is a track-by-track summary of the album.


New Again starts off with its title track. With a pounding bass riff, mildly syncopated drums, and lyrics that are reminiscent of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the first impression of this album is that they've still got it. The chorus loudly states that they're sure they can recover from the loss of Mascherino ("I am, I'm ready to be new again"), the "again" referring to the fact that they recovered from the loss of John Nolan and Shaun Cooper after their first album. While there are echoed vocals in this song during the chorus, the producer or mixer of the album has it sounding more like an echo than a battling second vocalist.

The next song on the album is the single, "Sink Into Me." At first listen, I was confused and I didn't necessarily like it... but it intrigued me. The first thing you hear is drums and people shouting "HEY." Normally you find people shouting "HEY" in stupid pop songs (see: Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" [do not take this as a bashing of Avril Lavigne, I just hate that song]). Then the guitar comes in. It's a syncopated riff, which makes it interesting, and then the bass is pounding a clear chord progression under it. I like the lyrics. a lot. This is one of those songs you can scream into your mirror or as you're driving down the street. Well-chosen as the first single. About half-way through this song, I got to thinking that I wouldn't have allowed the "hey"s had I been in the band, and then they get to the bridge. During the bridge, the guitarist (probably Eddie Reyes) palmmutes the chord progression as Adam Lazzara sings softly a bridge and the backup vocalists whisper "hey" into the microphones. It's a really cool bit of dynamics, and a very cool addition to the song.

"Lonely, Lonely" is a typical Taking Back Sunday song with Lazzara handling both sections of the dual leads as he repeats the word "lonely" almost more times than necessary. The backing vocals in the chorus, as unintelligible the lyrics are (possibly "she said", are really cool. They sound like possibly 3 part harmony behind Lazzara's lead, which makes me question how they'd manage to play this song live. He throws a characteristic scream in it as well. This is definitely a song that TBS fans will enjoy.

The chorus of the following track, "Summer Man," sounds like something that would come out of an album by The Academy Is..., but not a Taking Back Sunday album. It has a happy sound with sad lyrics. Lazzara sings about how he doubts he'll see this person again now that the summer is over... and that's the whole song.

Matthew Fazzi plays a guitar fill in "Swing" that sounds like the fill that his predecessor Mascherino used in "Error: Operator" from 2006's Louder Now. The lyrics are also reminiscent of "Set Phasers to Stun" off of 2004's Where You Want to Be.

"Where My Mouth Is" also sounds like a song by The Academy Is... off of their most recent album Fast Times at Barrington High, but only during the verse. The chorus is an impressively good sounding combination of the change from a soft sound to a power ballad sound in the instrumentation and Lazzara's passionate vocals singing about how he "had it all, sittin on top of the world, but [he] threw it away, just to prove that [he] could." For the first part of the bridge, Lazzara continues to lament this time accompanied by an acoustic guitar chord progression, and then the rest of the band comes in. This song mainly succeeds thanks to Lazzara's talent to sound passionate and genuine about his lyrics.

The verse to "Cut Me Up Jenny" uses syncopation again (like the single) to similar effect. The melody works beautifully as a complement to the syncopated rhythm of the other instruments. In the pre-chorus, Lazzara screams "cut me up Jenny" as a lead in to the chorus. The chorus fits perfectly well with the rest of the song.

After a carefully concealed time signature of 7/4 in its intro, "Catholic Knees" moves into the more typical 4/4 time. This further shows innovation from the guys in Taking Back Sunday. Moving on to the prechorus ("Everything was moving so fast"), they go back into the 7/4 time. As a songwriter and musician, I can attest that writing in 7/4 is no easy task. The attempt at capturing the dual vocals style in this song isn't nearly as strong as in the past, showing that Matthew Fazzi may have been brought in more to fill the lead guitar void than the (rather larger) void once filled by Fred Mascherino and John Nolan on vocals. Lazzara, however, turns in another reliable performance.

In "Capital M-E," TBS apparently discusses their feelings on Fred Mascherino's departure from the band and replies to some of the things he's said since he left. This isn't the first time they've done this. On 2002's Tell All Your Friends, TBS released a song called "There's No 'I' in Team," in which John Nolan and Adam Lazzara responded to Brand New's "Seventy Times 7" in a fight about John Nolan hooking up with Jesse Lacey (the singer of Brand New)'s girlfriend. It's a bit of a juvenile thing to do, but you write what you feel, right? I guess that makes this sincere. An interesting thing to note about this song is that the backing vocals and lead vocals are both handled by Lazzara.

"Carpathia" is a straight up rock song. Starting out with an emotional Lazzara and swiftly strummed (and promptly silenced) guitar chords, track 10 has a distinct feel of strong emotions lyrically reminiscent of a science fiction movie ("I don't worry half as much as I did when I was an experiment, your resident tourniquet"). Kudos to Lazzara for another convincing emotional performance. This song is notable for Matt Rubano's bass line. In the chorus, he plays a cool melody that beautifully complements the vocal melody, and after the first chorus, he plays a solo(!).

I seem to be repeating myself a lot with this, but Adam Lazzara perfectly conveys his emotions in this song. The album closer, "Everything Must Go," is about his breakup with former fiancée Chauntelle DuPree (of Eisley). The lyrics reminisce about moving in with her, and the instrumentation has the perfect feel to match the lyrics.

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Overall, I enjoy New Again. It's not as good as Louder Now, but it's a different type of album for them. Adam Lazzara continues to prove himself a reliable and dynamic frontman, Matthew Fazzi seems to have eased into his new role (I say eased because I don't yet feel that he's become 100% comfortable with his position from a creative standpoint), and the rest of the band does a solid job providing the music behind (and sometimes in front of) the vocals.

Louder Now is available in five formats.
Standard Edition: the complete 11 track album as a compact disc or digital download.
iTunes Edition: the complete 11 track album as a digital download, the bonus track "Long Time Comin'," and the music video for the single "Sink Into Me."
Vinyl Edition: the complete 11 track album on vinyl.
Limited Edition: the complete 11 track album as a compact disc, and a DVD containing footage of the making of the album.

Special Edition: the complete 11 track album as a compact disc, 2 B-Sides ("Didn't See That Coming" and "Catholic Knees (26th St. Shakedown)"), a DVD containing footage of the making of the album and track-by-track commentary from the band, an autographed lyrics booklet, a small model car with decals, an air freshener, three dice, a key-shaped 2GB USB storage drive, a replica drivers license of one of the band members, and an exclusive New Again t-shirt.

To buy New Again (and other music by Taking Back Sunday), visit http://www.takingbacksunday.com/shop/Music.