Album Review: The Used- Imaginary Enemy

Halfway through the second track of Imaginary Enemy, I exclaimed, “They’ve finally done it- they’ve put it all together on an album.” This was right around the bridge of “Cry,” when vocalist Bert McCracken cuts through a series of electronic effects to offer a guttural screech of “Nicer than that.” What follows is a punishing 25 seconds of metal riffs provided by guitarist Quinn Allman and bassist Jeph Howard. 

The opening track, ”Revolution,” and the track I spoke about above, “Cry,” are just about everything I could possibly expect in an album from The Used. They’re upbeat, incendiary emo anthems. If only the rest of the album could be like that.

Album Review: Taking Back Sunday- Happiness Is

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.