Taking Back Sunday
Happiness Is
(Hopeless Records)

Taking Back Sunday is back with their sixth full-length album, Happines Is, after a three-year hiatus. The 15-year-old band still knows how to rock and roll and recently became a part of an independent label, which is home to punk pop bands All Time Low, Bayside, and Silverstein.

Happiness Is brings TBS fans back to the Tell All Your Friends (2002) early days. Lead vocalist Adam Lazzara, guitarist John Nolan and Eddie Reyes bassist Shaun Cooper and drummer Mark O’Connell are back for all 11 heart-wrenching tracks. It gets even better since Brand New’s producer, Mike Sapone, produced five of the songs. Music enemies finally reunite.

“Flicker, Fade” and “Stood a Chance” are similar to songs on Louder Now with gripping vocals, electrifying drums, and guitar synths to captivate the soul. It’s obvious “All the Way” is about a jealous boy in a complicated relationship that longs for his lover in a head-first kind of love. A tune with low, soft guitar riffs followed by Lazzara’s spinning singing.

Metaphorically speaking, “Beat Up Car” is about true love and something you can’t put a price on (“I’ll buy some beat up car/We could get out of here/I’ll take you anywhere that you want to go”). “Like You Do,” a mellow, airy tune that progressively speeds up, is redundant to the main theme of the title.

Taking Back Sunday has finally returned to their roots with original band members, a definitive signature sound and a special love for pop punk fans.