Taking Back Sunday (album)

Taking Back Sunday
Studio album by Taking Back Sunday
Released	June 28, 2011 (2011-06-28)
Recorded	September 2010 – January 2011 in Tornillo, Texas
Genre	Alternative rock, pop punk, emo, post-hardcore
Length	39:24
Label	Warner Bros., Interscope
Producer	Eric Valentine
Taking Back Sunday chronology
Live from Orensanz (2010) Taking Back Sunday (2011) Happiness Is (2014)
Singles from Taking Back Sunday
"Faith (When I Let You Down)" Released: May 3, 2011 "This Is All Now" Released: June 7, 2011 "You Got Me" Released: October 11, 2011

Taking Back Sunday is the eponymous fifth studio album by American rock band Taking Back Sunday, released through Warner Bros. Records on June 28, 2011. Produced by Eric Valentine. It is the band's first record with John Nolan and Shaun Cooper since Tell All Your Friends in 2002.

Background and recording

On April 12, 2010, the Tell All Your Friends line-up of the band officially reunited, and announced plans to record a new album with Louder Now producer Eric Valentine.^[1]

When Taking Back Sunday confirmed the return of the Tell All Your Friends members, John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, Adam Lazzara told MTV News in an interview, "Well, having John and Shaun back in the band has nothing to do with any of the old records -- it has everything to do with being happy and what's good for the group's dynamics," he said, adding "because if things kept going the way they were going, there wouldn't have been another record at all."

Dwelling upon the reformation of the two, he also stumbled upon telling of Fazzi and Rubano. "Every person you encounter in your life, you learn a little something different from them, and I think that's a cool thing. I had an opportunity to share this big part of me with these two guys, and they were both amazing," he said. "Fazzi turned me to a lot of different bands and he exposed me to a lot of new ideas. Rubano was one of the best bass players that I've ever seen. With him, a lot of times, I remember getting lost in what he was playing. Just thinking about the conversation we had, it makes my stomach knot up ... but it got to the point where the bad times started to outweigh the good." He then went on to tell of Cooper and Nolan reforming with the band. Explaining what Mark had in mind for the future of the band, and past tensions of Nolan and Lazzara. "Mark had some crazy ideas, and sometimes they're dead on. And one day he called me and was like, 'Hey, man, what do you think about us going back to our original lineup?' And I was like, 'Are you crazy? I haven't talked to John in, like, seven years. I don't know if he'd want to do it,' " Lazzara said. "But he kept bringing it up, and then I got a call from John, and when he called, it felt like no time had passed. It felt like we had just talked a few days ago. We didn't start off talking about making music together — we were getting reacquainted with what had been going on in our lives. Because for me, I genuinely missed his friendship, and same with Shaun." He then added, "So when it started, it was more like I was happy to have this person back in my life. And then as those conversations went on, we started to send music back and forth ... and we were realistic about it. We both thought, 'There's a great chance this might not work,' " he continued. "But then it got to the point where we were like, 'Oh, man, I think this could work.' So we got together down in Texas, right near Juarez, Mexico, and right when we walked into that room and strapped instruments on, and the songs were just there. And what would typically take Taking Back Sunday six months to do we did in a week."

When on the road for a quite a while, the band had confirmed that they will be back in the studio to record what has become an eponymous album. Produced by Eric Valentine.

Pre-production on the album began on August 17, 2010, in El Paso, Texas. Recording began in September 2010, with the band announcing several working titles at the time: "Sad Saviour", "Don't Lose Faith in Me", "You Were Right", "Money", "Best Places to Be a Mom" and "El Paso", which was described by Adam Lazzara as the heaviest rock track the band has ever written.^[2]

On January 10, 2011, the band has announced that recording was officially finished, and that the album is now in the mixing stage. On March 3, 2011, guitarist Eddie Reyes has revealed that 11 tracks are set to appear on the new album and that mixing was finished on 10 of the 11 songs already.^[3]

On March 10, 2011, it was announced that mastering of the album was finished.

Music and lyrics

"El Paso", the first track of the album was as Adam has said to be, "probably the most heaviest rock song we've ever written." adding "Once we got done with it, we ended up listening to it 15 or 16 times in a row, and were all kind of like, 'Holy shit'", he says. "When everybody's like 'Holy shit' about something, you're onto something. It's a total motorcycle-raging-down-the-highway kind of song."

"Sad Savior", the fourth track of the album, results in emotional, '50s-style, loose guitar work from Nolan, which is all the foundation for the song. It "gets really dirty" at the end, Lazzara says. "It's something that we've never done before, and I'm really proud of it," the singer explains. "There's a big thing I missed about John's guitar playing, especially coupled with Eddie."

"Money (Let It Go)", the sixth track off the album, which Nolan plays a major role for, "It really has this James Bond, kind of spy/surf-y vibe," says Lazzara. "It's really fuzzy, and John has a really cool surf-y solo"

"Faith (When I Let You Down)", marries a "huge, punishing" chorus with a gentler verse, what Lazzara feels for the song is a "roller coaster" to the vocalist.

Release

On November 16, 2010, Adam Lazzara has uploaded a demo version of "Best Places to Be a Mom" to his Soundcloud page. Around the same time, the band started performing the song live.^[4] On December 20, 2010, the band released a Christmas song entitled "Merry Christmas I Missed You So Much", with no word if the song is set to be a part of the upcoming album or not.^[5] On March 28, 2011, the band released a new song entitled "El Paso" on their YouTube page. The lyric video for the song has revealed that the album will be eponymous and will be released in the summer of 2011.^[6] On March 30, 2011, Absolutepunk.net confirmed that the release date of the eponymous album would be on June 28, 2011.^[7] On April 6, 2011, the band performed a special show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey where they recorded footage for the upcoming music video for "El Paso", as well as debuting live a new song entitled "Faith (When I Let You Down)" (originally titled "Don't Lose Faith in Me").^[8]

On April 13, 2011, the band revealed the artwork and track listing's for the album. After this, the band then offered special pre-order limited edition bundles of the album; containing 3 "El Paso" session demo tracks and 3 "Eric Valentine" session demo tracks, with commentary tracks as well; the bundle also contained individual poster sleeves with handwritten lyrics written by Adam Lazzara.^[9] The album version of "Best Places to Be a Mom" was made available for download through the "Tsunami Relief: Download to Donate" compilation with a donation of $10 or more.^[10] On April 21, 2011, the band premiered the music video for "El Paso", directed by Thursday guitarist Steve Pedulla.^[11] On May 3, 2011, the band released the first official single from the album - "Faith (When I Let You Down)", a song which the band debuted live already on the Hoboken, NJ show on April 6.^[12] The song was originally leaked online on April 29.^[13] On June 21, 2011, the entire album was made available to stream for their BandPage app on their Facebook page. The day the album was made available to stream, they stated "Today is the day. Stay here for a bit won't you?". Every track was added by the hour as the day passed on.^[14]

On June 22, 2011, on the their official website, they posted new photos of the band currently working on a new music video for "Faith (When I Let You Down)". On June 23, the day after the release of the photos, the band posted an update on their Facebook page that they had "newly refreshed" their official website, along with a link to the Hot Topic website for a sneak peek behind the scenes footage for their new music video.^[15] On July 1, 2011, the band played an acoustic Livestream performance for Warner Bros. Records Summer Sessions. On July 8, 2011, Taking Back Sunday released the video for "Faith (When I Let You Down)". It shows man, dressed in a big cat walking the streets. And at the end of the video the cat comes to the room, when Taking Back Sunday sang. On November 7, 2011, Taking Back Sunday released the video for the UK single "You Got Me", which featured guitarist Eddie Reyes dancing on an empty stage.^[16] On March 19, 2012, Taking Back Sunday released the video for their second single "This Is All Now".

Reception

Since its release, the album has received a score of 77 out of 100 from Metacritic based on 7 "generally favorable reviews".^[17] IGN has given it a score of 8.5 out of ten and said that the album "takes the harder edge of their last album and molds it into something they, and their fans, should be much happier with."^[18]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(77/100)[17]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	81%[19]
AllMusic	[20]
Alternative Press	[21]
Blare	[22]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[23]
Kerrang!	[24]
Newsday	A−[25]
PopMatters	[26]
Punknews.org	[27]
Revolver	[28]
Spin	6/10[29]
Sputnikmusic	[30]

The album debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200 chart, with first week sales of 27,000 copies in the United States.^[31]

Touring

Taking Back Sunday had gone on tour with the bands Thursday, Colour Revolt, and The New Regime. PureVolume had teamed up with Taking Back Sunday and Thursday for an official tour sampler.^[32] Throughout the previous summer tour, the band had also played this year's Summerfest in Milwaukee with Rise Against, Ben Harper, and Blue Öyster Cult.^[33] The band will also be playing on this year's Reading and Leeds Festivals in the UK with the bands Muse, The Strokes and My Chemical Romance.^[34] Also this year's Independent Days Festival with the bands The Offspring, Simple Plan and No Use for a Name.^[35] Taking Back Sunday ended their summer tour in Cologne, Germany on September 7, 2011 at Burgerhaus Stollwerck.^[36] Taking Back Sunday had announced a Fall Tour with the bands The Maine and Bad Rabbits. The tour went on from October 1 to November 3.^[37][38]

Track listing

1. "El Paso" – 3:17
2. "Faith (When I Let You Down)" – 3:09
3. "Best Places to Be a Mom" – 3:32
4. "Sad Savior" – 3:19
5. "Who Are You Anyway?" – 3:33
6. "Money (Let It Go)" – 3:08
7. "This Is All Now" – 4:04
8. "It Doesn't Feel a Thing Like Falling" – 3:55
9. "Since You're Gone" – 4:09
10. "You Got Me" – 3:21
11. "Call Me in the Morning" – 3:59

Bonus tracks

Personnel

• Adam Lazzara – lead vocals
• John Nolan – lead guitar, vocals, keyboards
• Eddie Reyes – rhythm guitar
• Shaun Cooper – bass
• Mark O'Connell – drums, percussion

Production Credits:^[40]

• Eric Valentine - Producer, Engineering, Mixing
• Cian Riordan - Engineering
• Howie Weinberg - Mastering

References

External links

• Taking Back Sunday at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
• Taking Back Sunday official website