Artist: Taking Back Sunday
Album: Where You Want To Be
Label: Victory Records
Tracks: 11
Length: 40:54
Review by: Phil Nichols

Taking Back Sunday has everything that a good maintremo band needs: dueling shouted/screamed vocals, the outro chant with a layer of harmonized screams played over it, the verse-chorus-verse-big bridge song structures, the self-loathing lyricism, the token acoustic track, and to top it all off more drama than daytime television. Yes, Taking Back Sunday gets straight A's across the board on the mainstream success-o-meter, but when it comes to artistic and lasting value, Where You Want To Be leaves much to be desired.

This is the band's first album since the notorious split made famous by word of mouth and trendy tabloids, but for those of you who are not particularly educated on the internal happenings of bands here's the brief recap of the history of Taking Back Sunday: two Long Island kids get into a fight about a girl. One starts Brand New; the other starts Taking Back Sunday. Lyrical unpleasantries are exchanged between the two. The media starts covering the drama and the bands get lots of attention and airtime. John Nolan (Taking Back Sunday guy who fought with Brand New guy about girl) leaves Taking Back Sunday and starts Straylight Run with bandmate Shaun Cooper. Taking Back Sunday finds new members and records Where You Want To Be. See what I mean about drama?

With the departure of Nolan comes the departure of the vengeful lyrics that were the reoccurring theme of 2002's Tell All Your Friends. This album shows some lyrical maturity, but lacks some of the biting imagery that their previous album had (ex. No memorable lines like, "With my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt"). Musically, the album is generally the same, although there are some interesting arrangements like the addition of strings to the closing track. And vocally, Adam Lazzara's yelping is just as reminiscent of Chris Carraba as before, but Nolan angsty screaming is now replaced with new guitarist Fred Mascherino's competent howl.

Where You Want To Be is catchy; the songs will get stuck in your head. There is also a fair amount of decent songwriting scattered throughout the disc, which helps it stand out from the thousands of other similar bands. However, while this album is relevant considering the current trends in music, it would be surprising if the album maintains it's relevance for longer than a few months. As with their previous effort, the songs are catchy and nicely packaged for accessibility, but with repeated listens the album loses some of its dynamism, until the listening process becomes altogether too tedious to bear.

If you are a fan of the last Taking Back Sunday release, then you will like Where You Want To Be, as it is the same formula used on most of the songs. Fans of other bands like Brand New or even some Static Prevails-era Jimmy Eat World will also find some redeeming value in this, but be warned: Where You Want To Be will most likely end up in the same dark closet where you are hiding away your copy of Tell All Your Friends. It's a decent listen for now, but it lacks the innovation and creativity that would have given it greater lasting value.