Jealous Haters Since 1998!
Home | News | Reviews | Day In Rock | Photos | RockNewsWire | Singled Out | Tour Dates/Tix | Feeds
Is it a hit, *hit or miss?
Taking Back Sunday -  Tell All Your Friends
by Dan Grote

Taking Back Sunday -  Tell All Your Friends 
Label: Victory Records
Rating

An emo band from New Jersey? The devil you say! Taking Back Sunday are one of the latest in a series of melodramatic pop punk acts to hail from the Garden State, in a list that includes Thursday (the really angry ones from two days before) and Saves the Day (the ones that don’t scream but fantasize about your death).

So where does Taking Back Sunday fit into the genre that boasts Chris Carraba as its poster-boy? Well, they scream and fantasize about your death. Honestly, if they didn’t end so many of their songs in tantrums, “Tell All Your Friends” would probably be a very engaging pop album. However, somebody in the band had to go and fight with their girlfriend in a parking lot and run right to the studio to scream about wanting to kill himself. That’s the general theme of the album. That and alienation. Anything worth bringing a fifteen year-old boy to the verge of tears, really. Some call this particular offshoot of emo “screamo.” Taking Back Sunday, however, don’t so much scream as whine loudly.

The album’s most disturbing lyric, naturally, is from “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”: “Best friends means I pulled the trigger, best friends means you get what you deserve.” What is it about emo kids and killing peers? And it’s not the only time the band brings out the gun. In fact, in the previous song, “Cute without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team),” the lead singer croons, “which would you prefer, my finger on the trigger or me face down across your floor?” This kid really wants to fire a gun at somebody. The whole world must be against him or something. Man, high school sucks.

But seriously, the hard part about listening to this album is that sometimes, Taking Back Sunday create these gorgeous pop melodies, which makes it kind of hard when all the gun imagery and loud whining shows up. Musically, the biggest 180 on the album is on “The Blue Channel.” The song opens up with a piano ballad that was almost 100% lifted from Van Hagar’s “Right Now,” and then leads into the singer whining loudly at a girlfriend whose been keeping secrets from him, bellowing over a mantra of “honestly.”

VERDICT: There are times when “Tell All Your Friends” is a very pretty pop album, which is saying something given the deluge of pop punk and emo that has risen up to replace nu metal as of late. But Taking Back Sunday’s oft-putting angst will either disturb the unprepared or, eerily enough, be something to identify with. Picture the cute, sensitive kid in band becoming the next Columbine kid. In short, if you do identify with TBS, for the love of God, put the gun down!
 



CD Info and Links


Tracks:
There's No I In Team 
The Blue Channel 
Head Club 
Bike Scene 
Great Romances Of The 21st Century 
Ghost Man On Third 
Post Shave Healer 
Timberwolves At New Jersey 
You're So Last Summer 
You Know How I Do
 
Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

 


.
News Reports
.
Day in Rock:
Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration- Rush Members To Make Special Appearance- Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection- more

Day in Pop

B-Sides: Taylor Swift Reveals Her Mother Has Cancer- Rich Homie Quan Surrenders To Police Over Alleged Nightclub Assault- Justin Bieber Duets With Ariana Grande- Mumford & Sons- more

 Subscribe To Day in Rock

.
 
Reviews
.

Ladies Only: Jennie Abrahamson- Rachel Garlin- Nneka- More

Album of the Week: Led Zeppelin's When The West Was Won

Karyn Crisis' Gospel Of The Witches - Salem's Wounds

The Blues: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers- Arlen Roth, Mike Henderson Band- Slam Allen

Trauma Interview

December in Red - The Way Out

Battleaxe - Power From the Universe Reissue

SOKO Interview

The Compulsions - Dirty Fun

Rock Reads: Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost

Death Penalty - Death Penalty

On The Record: The Wild Beyond

RockPile: Minutian- Odin's Court- THEO

Michael Ubaldini Interview

Root 66: Cameron Mitchell- Stacy Jones- Greg Shirley


. .
.
Today's Rock News
. Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration

Rush Members To Make Special Appearance

Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection

Def Leppard Announce Summer Tour Dates

Avenged Sevenfold's M Shadows Guests On John Dolmayan Album

Aerosmith To Rock Steven Tyler's Grammy Awards Viewing Party

Tedeschi Trucks Band Streaming New Song 'Hard Case'

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody Biopic Nominated For Seven BAFTA Awards

Behemoth Release Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica Video

Blues Music Awards Nominees Announced


Subscribe to Day in Rock Report by Email

.
.
Today's Pop News
.
.
.
Latest B-Sides News
.

More News
.
 
anti Worthy Links
.
AudioNationRadio.comThe Screen DoorA Journal of Musical ThingsLloyd Zeffler blogDemolish MagNightwatcher's House of RockCJ ChilversDeja VoodooThe 1st Fivethecopycat.bizHard Rock Memorabilia Day in Rock @twitter

.
  .
.

Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!
Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!

 

Tell a Friend about this page - Contact Us - Privacy - antiMusic Email - Why we are antiMusic

Copyright© 1998 - 2013 Iconoclast Entertainment Group All rights reserved. antiMusic works on a free link policy for reprinting of our original articles, click here for details. Please click here for legal restrictions and terms of use applicable to this site. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.