Taking Back Sunday

“Louder Now” (Warner Brothers)

Sounds like: Brand New, Gatsby’s American Dream

REVIEW: 4 / 5

In short: Taking Back Sunday recreates its infamous emo-core sound with style and grace. This disc is a lot of the same, only a little different, and of course, a little more grown up.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a sissy for the last two Taking Back Sunday albums. The band is infamously wry, aggressive, anxious and confrontational – everything a confused young person could possibly want to rock out to on a late-night drive.

After spending several years writing and singing songs about heartbreak, emotional devastation and rebellion, Taking Back Sunday’s lyrics have finally struck a deeper chord. Songs about friends finding faith, songs about love opposed to one-night stands and songs about living in a facade of lies are just a glimpse of what “Louder Now” has in store.

The album’s first single, “MakeDamnSure,” is one of the band’s most raucous and catchiest songs to date. It serves as the “gateway” song, drawing listeners into the rest of the album, which sounds a little different than the pulse-pounding, insanely catchy songs from the band’s last disc, “Where You Want To Be.”

“Divine Intervention” is the album’s slow ballad, incorporating experimental instrumentation of a percussive variety. “Twenty Twenty Surgery” is a likely candidate for a second single, showcasing Adam Lazzara’s vocals.

If you like Taking Back Sunday, eat your heart out. If you don’t – well, you’ll likely be hearing it as a radio frequent anyway.

-Dan McClanahan