Taking Back Sunday 152 album review
This isn’t the emo band you remember.
Review by Natasha Christian.
Every Taking Back Sunday release seems to distance the band further from the emo icons we knew in 2002. Yep, Tell All Your Friends came out more than 20 years ago.
This week TBS has made a significant return with their first album in seven years - 152.
While the traces of emo nostalgia are still there - 152 is named after the North Carolina road where they used to meet up as teenagers - the band has grown, matured and reinvented themselves, and the result is a more uplifting and hopeful sound.
Rather than try to appeal to the next-gen of emos, this album appears to be for the band’s grown-up Millennial fanbase, most of which have swapped house parties and emo hair for families and growing up.
Opening track Amphetamine Smiles quickly introduces their new sound. It’s fresher, poppier and there’s something calming about the chill drum beat in the background. It’s clear TBS are in a better place than they used to be. Still, there’s darkness to be found in the lyrics “Gotta save yourself before you save somebody else," reminiscent of The Killers, My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional.
S'old, arguably the best on the album is Taking Back Sunday’s cheeky nod to aging. It’s how being told “you look great for your age” would sound in a song. Sticking with the nostalgia theme, S'old is infused with ‘80s synth and an awesome deep bassline. Adam Lazzara's distinctive voice remains a cornerstone of TBS’s sound. You can watch the video for S'old below, it’s also on the Outsiders playlist.
The One is an emotionally charged love song with its soft, supporting drums. Think flowers blooming and birds spreading their wings in slow motion. The band say this is their “John Cusack boombox moment," and it nails this brief. I read that bassist Shaun Cooper wrote the riff for this song after losing his grandmother during the pandemic. He wanted to write something light in the darkness and he has.
Musically, Keep Going is a classic emo throwback with its “woah oh” backing vocals, fast-paced vocals and catchy drums, yet the lyrics speak to growing up and moving on.
The next two tracks seem to be TBS’s shot at appealing to bigger audiences. I'm the Only One Who Knows You slows things down with its easy-listening interlude - I can hear this on Kmart radio making me unexpectedly emo while I’m looking for cheap cookware. While Quit Trying has an anthemic quality that’s verging on butt rock territory, reminiscent of bands like Nickelback or Daughtry. I can see this going off at concerts with phone lights in the air.
Lightbringer is the most TBS-sounding song on the album, Lazarra’s lyric play seems inspired by Boys of Summer. Juice 2 Me explores themes of addiction and the emotional complexities of love and loss. The song conveys a powerful message of moving on and choosing personal growth over being stuck in the past.
Closing track The Stranger has the first and only scream on the album, taking us back to the band's earlier, more aggressive sound. I think this is a great move, here to remind us that TBS has outgrown their emo days, but they’ve still got plenty to say.
152 isn’t the Taking Back Sunday you remember, but it's a testament to the band's growth and maturity. While the album lacks the edginess of their earlier work, this album shines with a newfound positivity and emotional depth, making it a worthy listen for both old and new fans.
152 is out October 27 via Fantasy Records.
