January 12th - Homesick by A Day To Remember

Released February 3rd, 2009 on Victory Records.

When I was coming up through the music scene, planting roots if you will, I came through the 2003 Emo Major Label boom. This was when Thrice released Artist in the Ambulance, Thursday released War All the Time, Taking Back Sunday was getting huge, and hometown boys The Used were getting national attention. Now at the time these bands were considered to be a lot lighter than their predecessors and influencers, none of which I had heard at that point. However when Adam Lazarra screamed "Best friends means friends forever / Best friends means you get what you deserve" or Bert's throat scathing scream on most of the Used self titled release, I got the sense that this was real emotion, a real feeling from these and many other bands from the era. While many of them lacked the underground clout of a Converge or a Dillinger, or Envy, they still did what they did and you could easily believe that each band meant exactly what they said on these songs.

Something happened while I was digging around in the past for more bands like the ones I grew up on: groups developed a sense of pop while keeping their hardcore breakdowns and screams. Now this has been done before, first with Husker Du and the Replacements in the 80s, then Lifetime and the Promise Ring in the 90s and finally New Found Glory and Saves the Day in the naughts. These bands would hybrid the energy from punk and hardcore and place them in a more pop oriented sense. Now a new crop has taken the head including A Day to Remember.

Homesick is not their first record in the game, they have released two other albums: For Those That Have Heart on Victory and And Their Name Was Treason on Indianola. They have had plenty of time to perfect the mosh, sing, mosh, sing, scream, breakdown, and finish with a bang formula, what some call pop-core. They are on the top of their game along with scene header liners Set Your Goals and Four Year Strong. For as much as I enjoy their predecessors I cannot get into this new generation, particularly this album for a few reasons.

One, this album when it is being played as hardcore album songs like something Kurt Ballou came up with in his sleep and threw away when he played it. The breakdowns are repetitive and consist of many of the same time signatures and tone. Two, when not in mosh mode A Day to Remember sound like an amped up version of Angels and Airwaves. They do not have the lyrical ability that Saves the Day had to set them apart, they do not have the charm of New Found Glory, and they do not have the ambient energy that Angels and Airwaves have. Third, there are far too many songs about being on the road and/or romantic relationships on this album, that says to me that the band are letting this album be marred by the curse of the sophomore album, even though they are on their third, and that is that they cannot remember the normal things that people fear and home and they cannot relate anymore.

While this album has its flaws, I can understand why kids that are coming up now attach themselves to this. It is non-offensive while being edgy, it is relatable to some situations of teenage hood, and it is loud enough that your parents will not like it. It is a semi-enjoyable listen for someone my age, however where Converge just dropped a new album and I still have the whole Thursday back catalogue to go back to then why would I need this kind of pop-core. Give me New Found Glory, Saves the Day, or Lifetime any day.

P.S.

The biggest guff I have with this album is the closer. It does not fit to have a ballad this slow on a band like A Day to Remembers album. It just does not fit and in my opinion should have been a b-side.

Rating - 2 1/2 out of 5
Best Song - "I'm made of wax, Larry, what are you made of?