Saves the Day is dead. Long live Saves the Day.
Of course, with the departure of long-time lead guitarist Dave Soloway prior to the release of Daybreak in 2009, that may have been the moment that marked the final days of an early 2000s emo powerhouse. But even that album felt more like a body of work you could have expected from Chris Conley and company in the past.
The band’s newest self-titled release marks a well-documented departure from the days of Stay What You Are, In Reverie, and, hell, even Sound the Alarm. Whereas previous entries in the band’s catalogue have dealt with the anxious, even nerve-wracking realities of the young and socially awkward, Saves the Day instead starts off on a power-pop riff and hardly strays from it (not that anyone’s complaining.)
The first two tracks, “Remember” and “In the In Between,” set the tone for the rest of the LP. The fast-paced, poppy tunes are care-free ventures, something missing from Conley’s writing since In Reverie.
Oddly enough, Saves the Day sounds more like the bands that have fondly proclaimed that Can’t Slow Down, Through Being Cool and Stay What You Are inspired their own sounds. That sentiment becomes even more pronounced as the album plays on.
“Beyond All of Time” slows things down a bit before “Ain’t No Kind of Love” kicks the tempo back up a bit. Both tracks flow into each other nicely. And although neither stands out on its own, the songs reinforce the mood of the album.
“Lucky Number” plays much the same, fitting into the album nicely as a piece of the puzzle, but without offering much on its own merit.
The song “Xenophobic Left Hook” by title alone demonstrates that Conley hasn’t yet lost his lyrical style. But the sound that accompanies his vocals is drastically different than ever before and it can be directly attributed to the band’s ever-changing lineup.
“The Tide of Our Times” is one of the album’s truly outstanding tracks. It’s catchy. It’s fast. It’s less than two-and-a-half minutes long and it’s emblematic of everything Saves the Day does right in this album.
“Supernova” is, lyrically, the closest we might come to a traditional Conley track. The imagery and metaphors are wonderfully woven throughout the ballad.
“Verona” picks the pace back up, leading nicely into another of the album’s best tracks: “Ring Pop.” The pace is fast and the lyrics recall carefree days when a ring pop may have sufficed as a symbol of courtship. It’s the essence of what makes some of Conley’s best music, harkening to a past with the sentimentality ramped up to 11.
“Stand in the Stands” is, by far, the most up-beat and optimistic album closer Saves the Day has ever composed. Standing in stark contrast to even the band’s sunnier albums and closers like “Firefly” and “Tomorrow Too Late,” the track starts with a bouncy melody and doesn’t let up for the nearly four minutes it plays out.
Although Daybreak was the first album where Conley was the last of the band’s founding members left, it carried hints of Sound the Alarm and Under the Boards, primarily because of those three albums’ conceptual ties (They were designed as a trilogy that started with 2006’s Sound the Alarm).
If Conley’s way with words is what drew you to the band, this will be right up your alley. Saves the Day may not be the band you remember, but Conley’s presence maintains the only lyrical and moody consistency that we really need.
Saves the Day is released on Sept. 17. It’s available for pre-order on the iTunes Store.