Review Summary: Making deals with the devil didn't work out...
To date A Day To Remember has released four albums (excluding re-releases) and it’s pretty much the same story over and over again; while they’re somehow a well-known band and already made their entry on music charts they don’t seem to have a target of listeners in the music industry, in fact it is quite tricky to write a review about this band because you can’t really tell if they deserve to be taken seriously or not.
The sound of the band has always been Hardcore/Metalcore mixed with Pop/Punk clearly showcased in their first album And Their Name Was Treason being a decent mix it marked basically a search for identity, it contained poppy moments like "A Second Glance" and the sugary acoustic song “You Had Me At Hello” accompanied by metalcore influenced songs like "Heartless” and "1958”, along with piano segments showcasing a hint of “experimentation” all of it enclosed by amateur and raw production giving the listener an interesting snoop. Then, the departure and arrival of drummers and signing with Victory Records saw the release of For Those Who Have Heart; the band member change and the production values actually helped the band improving what their last album left off, the musicianship became tighter and the vocals became more confident but (while more balanced) the genre mixing still was very much in the middle, they’re good at doing both but never great to an extent that the album feels very “samey” and the breakdowns are all similar and over-used.
Homesick, their third studio album was out after re-releases of both past records having a division among fans and reviewers with some calling it their best and others calling it simply “crap”; the record’s low ratings were generally attributed by bringing nothing new, repetitive song structures and more prevalent poppy elements but still it had successful singles like "The Downfall of Us All" and "Have Faith in Me" along with a fan disputable favorite "If It Means a Lot To You". After recycling (once again) Homesick with a re-release and having a brand new single "Right Where You Want Me To Be" the band doesn’t stop and just a year later they bring their latest effort What Separates Me From You. Slowly coming up from the underground the band finally starts to clear up what type of listeners they’re aiming at with two Homesick producers most notable New Found Glory’s lead guitarist Chad Gilbert. There are improvements of stuff they’ve made in the past along with some new things but the final product is not that pleasing.
Unlike FTWHH, Homesick songwriting style generally separated the harder songs ("Mr. Highway's Thinking About the End", "Holdin' It Down for the Underground") from the softer ones ("NJ Legion Iced Tea", "Have Faith in Me") and this aspect is a lot more relevant in here having only three noticeable hardcore songs differing from the rest including the opener “Sticks & Bricks", "2nd Sucks" (being the first fully screamed song from the band) and the powerful "You Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic".
That said, background screaming and breakdowns are present throughout the album the latter working better; Kevin Skaff the new lead guitarist and backing vocalist does a superior job than ex-guitarist Tom Denney and brings some variation not seen before, the overall heavy riffs are different giving the band (dare I say hard rock?) style at times but this could be a problem also with a couple of tracks sounding too mainstream counting "Out Of Time” and the album’s first single "All I Want". Other "almost-improvement" is the song “This Is the House That Doubt Built” not exactly a ballad it works as the albums most melodic song combined with a dark mood similar to “Colder Than My Heart, If You Can Imagine” but still, lacking its power. The remaining four are basically pumped NFG influenced pop-punk songs; similar to Four Year Strong as well "Better Off This Way" is the only one that stands out to a certain point, being affected by “Oh-Oh-OH’s” in the choruses but with a good screamed breakdown in the second verse and the most disappointing among these four is “If I Leave” sounding too generic giving a dull and rushed ending to the album.
WSMFY is not exactly made for old fans of the band and probably will attract others, as mentioned earlier ADTR found their niche along pop punk with some hardcore like FYS but in addition of reducing the “screaming” moments, the verses/choruses/bridges are intended to be greater not working that much and Jeremy McKinnon’s vocals sound at times very forced, taking away much of the song or moment’s energy. So you can blame the record company of pushing them to release a new album, you can blame the band of changing they’re sound (evolving) or you can blame it on Chad Gilbert’s clear influence on these songs, the truth is that with almost the same length as “And Their Name Was Treason” it doesn’t contain its same power and substance.
