In 2013 pop-punk icons The Story So Far released their second full-length, What You Don’t See, which debuted at number 46 on the Billboard 200 chart. Two long years later, the highly anticipated self-titled follow up is finally here and the wait was well worth it.
The album opens with screeching guitars and beating drums, which builds up anticipation within the listener, then releases into the notorious wailing and rough sound that makes up The Story So Far. “Smile,” the first track on the album, is the perfect high-energy opener that is jam packed with heavy guitars and impressive drum work, all while being topped with brutal lyrics centered on vocalist Parker Cannon’s luckless love life. The song also impressively alludes to What You Don’t See with the lyrics, “’Cause you robbed me, fed me the line/Your bounty was me, took all you could see” causing a smirk to cross the face of the keen listener. While the album starts off strong, the listener gets a little lost in the middle, with each song sounding just like the last.
However, the listener gets picked back up with “How You Are,” a song, much like opener “Smile,” that starts off with a drawn out intro with heavy drums and bass and breaks into Cannon’s howling of, “Trying to find out how you are.” The song has the most diversity on the album, featuring various instrumental solos and a reduced tempo group-vocal bridge keeping the listener eager for the remainder of the album.
The Story So Far only features one ballad, “Phantom,” which is a beautiful showcase for the guitars and Cannon’s vocal ability, who is known for his spit-fire laments, but defies expectations with a soothing and dreamy performance layered perfectly with the slow strums of the electric guitars and the light rapping of the snare drum. The album finishes with more mourns of a relationship gone AWOL and a heavy sound to accompany it fulfilling the expectations of the long-awaited, self-titled, The Story So Far album.
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Recommended Tracks: “Phantom” & “Heavy Gloom”
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