jason stives examines the new album by pop-punksters Saves The Day …
When murmurings began in 2007 about Saves The Day’s latest release Daybreak, frontman (and now sole original member) Chris Conley stated the album would complete a trilogy of records, with the then-newly released Under The Boards being the Empire Strikes Back of the trio. Four years after heralding those comments, Daybreak has arrived, and in many ways it continues some of the dark undertones of its predecessor but holds less skepticism in its content and more optimism in its theme. In other words, Daybreak is a more satisfying Return Of The Jedi for Saves The Day.
Opening with the five-part magnum opus title track, one could be quick to think Conley has over embellished his intentions, but it rightly sums up a band 14 years deep into their career. Each album has been an interesting study of a band going vicariously through their youth and a songwriter hellbent on never staying the same, mostly for good intentions. In this case, both Daybreak and Under The Boards were the adulthood chapter of the band as Conley turned 30 in between both albums’ releases. For a man who ceremoniously yelled about hanging on rooftops in Highland Park some 10 years prior, has now seen friends come and go and the need to carry the essence of the band he started still remains.
Make no mistake, every Saves The Day album has been a Saves The Day album thanks to Conley’s presence, and with that satisfaction in our heads, the constant changing sound of the band has seemed instantaneous and still wildly excepted by the core fan base.
What bogs down the album slightly is why its simplistic output took three years to release. Argumentatively, the tracks follow a straight and narrow progression of their previous album. Tracks like “1984” and “Deranged And Desperate” could have easily seen light on 2006’s Sound The Alarm, whereas the more melancholy love-lorn tracks like “Let It All Go” and “Living Without Love” transcend a good 10 years as more polished and mature versions of tracks from 2003’s In Reverie. This doesn’t mean the tracks lack a structure of originality; in fact, they are very fluid in their approach. Daybreak shows a band in a cycle — subject is no longer reserved for the primitive 20s, and now as an adult with a family, Conley has tackled what I can only imagine wanes on his conscious regularly when he is on tour and in the studio.
While it’s great to reminisce about the heights of Through Being Cool and Stay What You Are, Saves the Day as it has been in the past six years is at a creative peak after some heavy soul searching. The second chapter in the band that started with Sound The Alarm is a gifted one, and while Daybreak is not a perfect release, it’s a great embrace of the bands hardcore and pop-punk routes, and a signifier of a pop-punk band’s ability for longevity way past the point of existence in the 21st century.
Rating: 8 out of 10
