Taking Back Sunday Band • Page 288

both of those are good and "Best Places to Be a Mom" is fucking great

 

Not a popular opinion around here, but I think the most replay-able songs come from the self-titled (as far as reunion albums go)

 

the original version of BPTBAM was better than what ended up on the album, but that's been discussed enough. self titled is just too much of a mess, and, it is forever tainted by the decision to write, record, and then have the audacity to actually add 'Money' to the finished album that you wanted people to hear!

 

is there an old version of "Best Places" around? I don't think I've ever heard that

and yes, miss me with "Money" now and for all time

 

i dont think the original version was ever formally recorded even in demo form, but, this is a video of them performing it at the 2010 reunion shows - some structure changes, and way more featuring of that great riff that only comes in at the end of the song on the album version.

as always please forgive adam's vocals

 

Good lord. One day, the world needs to come together for a debrief to discuss how some bands got away with terrible live performances. This sounds like a horrible high school band cover.

 

i honestly don't think a band like TBS even needs to worry about sounding good live anymore, and probably haven't had to for a while. i don't even think the allure of seeing john and shaun again has worn off for a lot of fans who maybe have only been able to see them 2 maybe 3 times since the reunion? living in long island i'm definitely TBS-spoiled, but longtime fans of the band are going to shows nowadays to just sing along with their friends and try and be young again lol

 

Agreed...I don't view TBS as anything other than a nostalgia act at this point. Much like most of the scene.

 

List of the tightest acts in the scene?
- Manchester
- Thrice
- Bayside
- Coheed?

 

Thrice and Coheed for sure. I'd include Underoath and Paramore. All of these bands could've easily pigeonholed themselves, but they've all evolved in different ways and it works very, very well. There are obviously more bands who are still chugging along, but many fall victim to the nostalgia act label.

 

Coheed is the best live band i've ever seen that isn't The E Street Band.

 

but yeah, manchester, thrice, & bayside all absolutely fit the bill of incredible live shows, i'd add circa survive to that list as well.

bayside loses points because of their inability to ever change up their setlist lol

 

Speaking of the downfall between LN and New Again.....Sadly, I think these guys are hurting their base growth (if they even want to grow their base) by not releasing a new album in 4 years and now, probably, going to be heading towards 5 years.

I enjoy Tidal Wave a lot. I think it’s their best work (Not my favorite), but there’s practically no momentum going on with the band even before Covid hit. I understand they needed a break and Covid hit, but dang...it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully they come back motivated and inspired with all this time off. I want nothing but the best for these guys. I have high expectations now.

 

I've said it before in this thread and I am sure I will say it many more times, but for a band that so adamantly insists that they're not a "nostalgia" act, they've spent like, 5 of the last 8 years exclusively touring on album plays of older albums lol - they've absolutely done nothing to grow their base but i don't even think they need to or think that's their goal anymore, i think they just wanna make music, which is fine by me.

My assumption is that Covid threw a lot of their plans off, idk where they were in the process but i'm pretty sure they made it well known that they were at least writing for another album. I also have no real idea what some of the legalities may be with Eddie no longer being in the band? I had thought that the Twenty Tour was a way for them to cash in (literally) and then go away for a little bit - Adam and his family just moved, John moved back to Kansas, pretty sure Mark and Shaun have/had more kids on the way - I think we get more from them but not for a little bit.

 

Yea..now would be a good time start with a clean slate. TBS just lacks the consistency of the aforementioned bands.

 

@-ing you because you are right. self titled has some great stuff

 

it also seems wild that next year is the 10 year anniversary of the self titled album

 

imo it's better than Tidal Wave at least, which was good but I almost never have any desire to return to outside of a few tracks.

s/t is flawed but honestly most of my problems with it are about the production and not really the songs (even Money is kinda fun to me even if it's not my favorite)

 

I saw them tour Tidal Wave front-to-back. They’ve given plenty of attention to recent material.

 

I've been a New Again defender since day one. It's pretty much tied with WYWTB as my favorite record of theirs. Louder now is a very close second.

I feel like the band's best days are behind them but I am glad they're trucking along. Every record post-NA is the same for me: a few good tracks but the overall record still not giving me the excitement that WYWTB/LN/NA still does. Definitely a nostalgia act for me at this point.

 

no band still pumping out bangers like "Death Wolf" is a true nostalgia act imo

 

Until the TW tour I do think they’d veered very heavily into nostalgia act despite their attempts against it, so hopefully they keep up that energy. Vocals aside I think Adam is a really underrated songwriter and from a creative standpoint I think they’re in a bit of second peak.
On a similar note, I’m surprised TW hasn’t aged well for people. It’s a bit front loaded but Come Back Running, Fences, All Excess, and You Can’t Look Back are incredible, and that Americana sound is usually a big crowd pleaser.

As for s/t, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth until I relisten to it and then it’s just fine. Best Places and Falling are the only I’d put on a Best Of list tho, and sad savior and money may be their two worst songs imo.

 

Songwriting-wise, most of the tracks on S/T feel half-baked, and the sound of everything suffers from awful production choices across the board. Even the songs I like from it are a rough listen, tbh.

Hapinness Is is a major step up in every way (especially the drums). Not every song is a winner for me, but I never feel the need to skip anything whenever I put it on, and usually, if I'm in the mood for TBS these days, it's either HI, NA, or WYWTB.

Tidal Wave also sounds great, and I enjoy the direction they took with their musical style on it, but none of the songs have really stuck with me for some reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯