Taking Back Sunday – Tidal Wave
Review by Annette Hansen
It’s clear with Taking Back Sunday’s seventh full-length album that the band wanted to bring some new musical elements to the table. Heavily inspired by old school punk rock, Taking Back Sunday have combined aspects of the genre with their own brand of spunk on the recently released Tidal Wave.
Taking Back Sunday have certainly taken their music to some new places, but the overall feel of Tidal Wave still holds true to the high energy grittiness that fans have come to expect from the band. Tracks like the namesake “Tidal Wave” and “Homecoming” really show off the band’s progression: “Tidal Wave” with its fun punk rock riffs and flavor and “Homecoming” with its more singsong, radio friendly tone.
While I love to hear a band like Taking Back Sunday trying new things, there are a few moments on this record that just don’t work with the iconic sound that they have cultivated for more than a decade. With a song like the previously mentioned “Homecoming,” the marching rhythm and folksy feel of the track feels too much like mainstream radio rock, and while it is catchy, it just doesn’t fit in well on Tidal Wave. Also, there are subtle moments of heavily auto-tuned vocals, particularly on “In the Middle of It All” and “I’ll Find a Way to Make It What You Want,” that feel really off-putting with the more raw nature of the rest of the album.
But Taking Back Sunday remind us why they’re still a staple in the alternative scene with roaring tracks like “Death Wolf,” “Holy Water” and “Call Come Running.” They even excel on the slower moments of the album with “I Felt It Too” and “We Don’t Go in There.”
In the end, not every moment of Tidal Wave works, but enough of it does that it continues to prove that Taking Back Sunday is a band that doesn’t fail to regularly put out solid work.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Recommended Tracks: “Death Wolf” and “Call Come Running”
