Taking Back Sunday is the fifth studio album by American rock band Taking Back Sunday. After returning home from touring the Soundwave festival in February and March 2010, guitarist Matthew Fazzi and bassist Matthew Rubano were dismissed from the group. They were replaced by guitarist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper, both of whom were former members of the band. Later in March, the band began writing material for their next album in El Paso, Texas. The following month, demos were recorded with the aim to release a new album later in the year. Recording began in October with producer Eric Valentine at Barefoot Recording in Hollywood, California and finished in January 2011.
In March 2011, Taking Back Sunday was announced for release, and a month later, a music video of "El Paso" was released. In May, "Faith (When I Let You Down)" was released as a single, along with its music video. In June, "This Is All Now" was released as a single, and on June 28, Taking Back Sunday was released through Warner Bros. and Sire Records. The band embarked on a tour of the US with Thursday in June and July. In July, a music video was released for "Faith (When I Let You Down)" featuring footage of the band recording and performing at The Bamboozle festival, followed by the release of the single "You Got Me" in August. A US fall tour was undertaken in October and November, followed by a music video for "You Got Me" in the latter month. In March 2012, a music video was released for "This Is All Now". The band then had a headline spot on the 2012 edition of Warped Tour between June and August.
Taking Back Sunday sold 27,000 copies in its first week of release, charting at number 17 on the Billboard 200 chart. In addition, the album reached the top 20 on several other Billboard charts. The album also charted in the lower regions of the Australian, Canadian and UK album charts. The album received generally favorable reviews, with several reviewers making favorable comparisons to the band's debut album, Tell All Your Friends (2002).
Background In February and March 2010, Taking Back Sunday participated in the Australian festival Soundwave. Soon after returning home, bassist Matthew Rubano sent the rest of the band song ideas, which were ignored. After two weeks with no communication, three members of the band and their manager held a conference call with Rubano. During the call, the band stated their intention of continuing without him. Guitarist Matthew Fazzi also received a call from the group, saying that they were "letting [him] go." On March 29, statements by Fazzi and Rubano announcing their departure from the group were posted on the band's website. Two days later, it was announced that former members guitarist John Nolan, and bassist Shaun Cooper had re-joined the band. Nolan and Cooper had left the band in 2003, going on to form Straylight Run.
The idea of reuniting with Nolan and Cooper was first proposed in January 2010, when Mark O'Connell suggested Lazzara talk with Nolan on the phone. Lazzara said: "One day he [O'Connell] called me and was like, 'Hey, man, what do you think about us going back to our original lineup?' And I was like, 'Are you crazy? I haven't talked to John [Nolan] in, like, seven years. I don't know if he'd want to do it.'" O'Connell continued to insist on the idea, "and then I got a call from John [Nolan] ... it felt like no time had passed ... like we had just talked a few days ago". The pair did not discuss creating music initially, instead "[we got] reacquainted with what had been going on in our lives. Because for me, I genuinely missed his friendship, and same with Shaun [Cooper]."
Composition As the discussions between Lazzara and Nolan continued, they began sending each other music. At first, the pair thought it would not work out. Eventually, it got to the point where "we were like, 'Oh, man, I think this could work'", according to Lazzara. In March, the group relocated to a farm close to the Texas–Mexico border. The group spent a few weeks writing material at Sonic Ranch studio in El Paso, Texas. The song writing process started off with a guitar part, Nolan and Lazzara would work on lyrics and melodies, and then bounce ideas off the other members. Lazzara would suggest bass parts, and drummer Mark O'Connell would contribute guitar parts. The first song the group wrote was "Best Places to Be a Mom", which was written in 20 minutes. The group wrote seven songs, which would've "typically take[n] Taking Back Sunday six months to do[, instead] we did [it] in a week". Cooper noted that all the members had "gotten better at playing and writing songs".
Cooper said the band members relied "on each other instead of forcing each other to play something". Guitarist Eddie Reyes insisted on playing his own part, as opposed to a chord progression, on several occasions. Cooper said "So instead of trying to force him to play one thing, he’ll go and do his own thing that’s way more cool and unique that any of us could imagine." Lazzara mentioned there was "an urgency and an energy and an excitement" embedded into the material, which "you can't create or fake". Nolan stated that Straylight Run helped Cooper and himself as musicians: "We learned, we grew and were much more mature coming back to TBS." Cooper mentioned that towards the end of the writing process the group's "creative juices ... were just so depleted".
Recording In April, the band began demoing material, and said they were aiming to release a new album later in the year. In August, the band announced they would be recording in a few weeks' time, and were aiming for a spring 2011 release. After some shows in the summer, the band began recording in October. Eric Valentine produced the sessions at Barefoot Recording in Hollywood, California. Valentine also engineered the sessions with assistance from Cian Riordan. The band used Undertone Audio Consoles during recording. At the start of recording, the group had 18 songs. They whittled this number down little by little, and wrote additional songs at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, Washington. Nolan said recording the album was a "learning process" since "the way that the band had been making records was very different than what Shaun and I were used to coming back into it". Nolan said their label was "pretty nervous and unsure about what was going to happen". In addition to this, the label would hear their progress throughout the recording process and would infrequently provide feedback. Towards the end of their relationship with the label, said "it was a whole new staff and I don’t think anyone cared anymore". Looking back in 2015, Nolan said the group "ended up not feeling very good" about having their label check on the proceedings.
The drums tracks were completed in early October 2010. Valentine helped the group arrange their parts, according to Nolan: "He has this way of weaving those parts together in a way that we wouldn't have been able to do on our own." Nolan said Valentine took control of "the amp stuff," which made sense to him "because he knows so much more about that stuff". The group spent some time "messing around" with guitar pedals, according to Nolan. On December 8, the band posted a behind-the-scenes video of themselves in the studio. On January 10, 2011, the band announced that recording was officially completed. A week later, the band said the album's artwork was being produced and Valentine was mixing the tracks. While 11 tracks ended up on the final version of the album, a further seven or eight songs were recorded. Howie Weinberg mastered the recordings at Howie Weinberg Mastering in March.
Music and lyrics
Choosing to self-title the album, Lazzara said: "We haven’t had [a self-titled album], and going back to the original lineup, it seems appropriate." Nolan mentioned a recurring theme throughout the album: "The issue of being an adult with a real life and a long-term relationship or marriage, and trying to make that work." The album's sound has been described as rock and post-hardcore. Band members made up their own sequences for the track listing, then noted the similarities. Lazzara said "...with El Paso ... Why not come out swinging?" The track was one of the first songs written for the album, and Lazzara said it encapsulates "both the mood of the environment we were in down there and the mood we were in about being back together again and writing new music". Lazzara called it "probably the heaviest rock song we've ever written", incorporating influences from Fugazi and Glassjaw, and a Nirvana-like bass part.
Lazzara said "Faith (When I Let You Down)" matches a "huge, punishing" chorus with a soft verse, which comes across as a "roller coaster" to him. Lazzara mentioned that the track took longer to work on compared to the other songs on the album, going through 4 or 5 sets of lyrics. One day, Lazzara was checking his emails and saw the phrase "Best Places to Be a Mom" roll across the news ticker. He thought it was "funny and in context it is". The track started out as a slow song before being sped up by Reyes. Lazzara said the track was "strikingly similar" to "You Know How I Do", the opening track on Tell All Your Friends; the vocal melody is taken from "Rosanna" by Toto. "Sad Savior" feature Nolan playing a 1950s Buddy Holly-esque guitar riff reminding Lazzara that he had missed John Nolan's guitar playing:"...I missed ... John's guitar playing, especially coupled with Eddie [Reyes]'s."
Lazzara said, "Money (Let It Go)" has a James Bond "kind of spy/surf-y vibe" and features a "really cool surf-y solo" by Nolan. It took influence from garage rock, and was compared to My Chemical Romance and the White Stripes. O'Connell created the chord progression for "This Is All Now", while Nolan came up with the melody for the song's chorus. The track's lyrics went through three or four different drafts. Lazzara said it was about the group's relationship with "faith and growing up in and out of the church". The verses were centred around an angular Dismemberment Plan-esque drum pattern. "It Doesn't Feel a Thing Like Falling" featured a guitar riff in the vein of Hundred Reasons. The band referred to the bridge in "Since You're Gone" as the "Beatles bridge" because it was "very unlike us," according to Lazzara. Lazzara described "Call Me in the Morning" a "ballady kind of sentimental tune". When the group recorded the track, they sat in a circle "with this crazy microphone in the middle and we were all playing together". "You Were Right" started as an acoustic song, written by Nolan.
Release