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It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything new from Taking Back Sunday, and now that their new release, the band’s fourth studio album, has arrived, it doesn’t disappoint. Never before has an album title summed everything up so well. ‘New Again’ embodies exactly what the band have been through since the ‘Louder Now’ era. They have returned strong, revitalised and with a new man who they claim has saved their ass; Mr Matt Fazzi.

Late 2007 saw the band bid farewell to their guitarist Fred Mascherino, and it was around that time that all of the stitching in the Taking Back Sunday quilt started to fray and fall apart. The ‘Louder Now’ aftermath had well and truly ended, and it was time to move on, but TBS were unsure of where they were going, and who was going with them, A band that can’t stand to be anywhere near each other is not a band that is going to produce the kind of standard expected of Taking Back Sunday. So they took a break and this is where Matt Fazzi comes in.

Those who were set to stamp their feet in protest over the new guitarist’s addition to the TBS line up are forced to eat their words about 30 seconds into the first track, ‘New Again.’ The bass punctuates Fazzi’s squealing intro proving that he isn’t just going to fill Mascherino’s shoes; he’s going to buy a new pair. And obviously, Adam Lazzara’s vocals twist and turn through the sound, seducing the listeners and highlighting the message of this album, a message the fans need to hear. ‘You don’t know where I’ve been... I am ready to be new again. I’m ready to hear you say who I am is quite enough.’ This is Taking Back Sunday, Fred Mascherino be damned.

‘New Again’ is followed by the first single off the album, ‘Sink Into Me’; the clearly shining star of the 11 on the album. It’s the kind of song that makes you nostalgic for the albums gone by, yet, it undoubtedly makes you excited for what this band are going to do next. This is the song of the album, and even on the first listen, you can hear the inhale of fan girls everywhere as Adam Lazzara croons ‘I want to see you have your way... come on and have your way with me.’ Other highlights of the album include ‘Summer Man’ which attacks your emotions, filling you with longing for something you can’t quite place, ‘Cut Me Up Jenny’, an absolutely hip-shaking, pulsating rock-rhythm track and ‘Capital M-E’, a track rumoured to be an F-U to Mascherino; good one nonetheless.

‘New Again’ offers certain things we expect from a good Taking Back Sunday album; spunk, seduction and a hell of a lot of style, but underneath all this is something a little different. Not bad different... just different. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s some new blood on the scene or maybe it’s the fact that during their period of near exile, the band grew up, developed and changed into this re-charged machine we now hear. Whatever it may be, here’s to the next.