Before delivering an assessment of Taking Back Sunday’s most
recent album, I feel it may be important to delve into the band’s history.
After releasing two critically acclaimed albums on Victory Records, they
shifted to a major for their mainstream breakthrough Louder Now and the disappointing follow-up New Again. While the release of 2011’s self-titled reunion with the
original Tell All Your Friends lineup was generally hailed as a success, it was
fraught with mismanagement from the label that released the album, Warner Bros.
The band commented in interviews about how Warner did not promote the album
adequately, and on the bonus disc that came with the self-titled even hinted
that the label made the band take songs off of the tracklisting (the biggest
loss being the stellar B-side “Mourning Sickness”). Because of this
disappointment with Warner Bros., the band recently moved to Hopeless Records,
allowing them to retain some autonomy over their musical
direction and tracking decisions.
