It would be an understatement if I had said that First Day Back was one of my most anticipated albums of 2016. Somos had released an amazing first release with Temple Of Plenty. It introduced them to the world of emo/pop-punk that is flooded with off key singing and twinkly reverbed out guitar tones. Temple Of Plenty was in3novate, unique, insightful, and intriguing to listen to. First Day Back is at best an EP that was stretched out to be a LP. Half of the songs are well put together energetic and unique. Meanwhile the other half are slow, down trodden, overly sad songs that seem to drag on and on into one another. It’s as if Somos decided they would do something completely different. Instead of being an emo/pop-punk band they would try to be an emo/indie band. Remove the emotive singing of Michael Florentino and force him to sing in a lower register as well as almost monotone in comparison to Temple Of Plenty. The only good things I have to say is instrumentally most of the album is rather enjoyable. I find myself being extremely into the instrumentals of First Day Back, but when coupled with the singing it is simply unbearable. It just doesn’t fit. I’m completely unaware who produced this release, but they should be verbally chastised and criticized for their choice in vocal coaching. I’m having a very hard time picking out anything enjoyable for this album, so rather than drag this out I will list the tolerable things.
“Violent Decline” introduces you to the ‘new’ and ‘improved’ Somos. Having submitted to the modern indie clichés of having ‘dancier’ drumming meanwhile sticking to many Emo style clichés. For example: the double timed pre-chorus leading into the half timed chorus is extremely pop-punk. The chorus has a few redeeming vocal parts, overall they introduced you to Michael’s new style… It’s horrendous and doesn’t fit.
“Thorn In My Side” shows you that emo can once again be danced to (which Somos did on their first release very often but never to this extent). This isn’t a bad thing they really do a good job with this song. The singing style fits perfectly with this song and doesn’t bring the song down with it’s melancholy Morrissey-esqu style that most the album suffers from.
“Problem Child” is the beginning of the end for this albums redeeming songs. The first verse is atrocious and makes me want to stop listening completely. It’s so melancholy I can feel the judgment being cast upon my teenage self. I really don’t want to swear so instead here’s a true story. This song is so melancholy that my cat stopped eating and walked away from his bowl. The last 45 seconds of this song is why I’ve included mentioning it. that is all.
“Reminded/Weighed Down” is the last good thing you will hear on this album until it is over. This song is so good it almost hurts when you hear what comes after. “Reminded/Weighed Down” is the perfect blend of pop-punk, emo, and indie that everyone hopes for. Treading the line between being sad and happy almost perfectly. The instrumentation is up beat and makes you want to dance, however the lyrics are introspective and insightful. This song is so good it is almost as if they wanted to make a very clear distinction that they planned an EP and instead were asked for a full length. So they put this song to cap off the actually acceptable music.
If Somos were to change I feel as if these four songs are indicative of how they would change. Meaning they would release a whole album of similar material to this. Then make the change to selling the melancholy crap that is on the rest of this album. That is all I have to say. Please only listen to those four songs and then move on. This song gets a 1.5/5 because 3.2/10 (that is excluding the 1st track which was a 40 second introduction) of the songs were not melancholy Morrissey wannabes and I only include “Problem Child” on this because it had 45 seconds of redemption.
Overall Rating: 1.5/5
Suggested tracks: “Violent Decline”, “Thorn In My Side”, and “Reminded/Weighed Down”
