Review Summary: Ultimately, while it doesn’t come close to peak ADTR, it is very much an enjoyable album that I love and is a successful entry in their catalog.
A Day To Remember will always hold a special place in my heart. Most people who know me, already know this story as I’ve told it many times over the years. But for those who don’t, I’ll explain. When I was a kid, I didn’t really have friends. Well by kid, I mean in high school. I was a closeted gay boy who was so far in the closet I didn’t know I was in it even while growing up in major catholic town and family. Add on undiagnosed mild autism and severe unmedicated ADHD, and I was quite the weird kid. I was mostly a radio rock listener in high school with a few exceptions for pop punk bands like Blink 182, All Time Low, and Sum 41, and a few heavier metal songs. I graduated in 09. In spring of 2010, I had just lost my first job, and it was tough to find another. So to keep myself busy while I wasn’t working and just living with my parents, I would go to the library and check out cds, rip em to to ITunes, and then listen to a lot of new music. One of the albums I found was Motion City Soundtrack, My Dinosaur Life.
I fell in love with the album and wanted to find more like it, so I started looking through Alternative Press magazines to find others I liked too. In summer of 2010, I found A Day To Remember, Homesick right as the deluxe edition was coming out. I didn’t really know anything about it at the time other than knowing their cover of The Frays, Over My Head, but I decided to buy it at Hot Topic just because one night when I was with my dad at the mall and instantly became obsessed with it. Homesick took me on my journey of discovering metalcore, post-hardcore, hardcore, and a few years later, more pop punk and emo. This may seem like it makes no sense why I’m sharing all of this, but it will make sense soon.
Between 2007-2013 I really didn’t have friends at all. In 2012, I had joined the navy. I got stationed in Japan a month after boot camp. I tried making friends with people, but all everyone wanted to do was go drink at bars, and wasn’t into that, so it made it difficult to make friends. It also didn’t help, that I was still the same far in the closet gay boy as I was in high school, just was 21 instead. This all changed about 5 months after I got to my ship and an other new dude showed up who also loved A Day To Remember. And then I had a friend. They were already one of my favorites, but now I view them as the only reason I’m alive right now. If I wouldn’t have found them when I did, I wouldn’t have had friends in the navy, and I wouldn’t have survived it without friends. All my friends were music friends. This is why they will always hold a special place in my heart, and regardless of what music I’m listening to at the time, I will always be excited for new music from them And will usually love it regardless. I even loved You’re Welcome and that was notoriously hated
Now, when Miracle was first released, I was in the same boat as everyone else in hoping that the new album was the same kind of sound as that, as it was the best thing had recorded since Common Courtesy. Then came Feedback, which at the time, I found it to be their worst song yet. I’ve grown to enjoy it more since though, but it’s still a bottom tier ADTR track. Then they finally announced the album with Make it Make Sense and LeBron which were both Major improvements over Feedback. Vol. 1 mostly lands between Miracle and Feedback. It’s their best work since Common Courtesy but doesn’t reach any of the highs of it outside of Miracle and To the Death. Those two are the major highlights from the album but other tracks that I felt like were standouts to me were Make It Make Sense, All My Friends, and Same Team. There’s not as many of the pop rock style tracks that You’re Welcome had a bunch of, which also comes to a win, as they werent as strong as they were there. But there’s really only one of them so it doesn’t really hurt the album much.
Ultimately, while it doesn’t come close to peak ADTR, it is very much an enjoyable album that I love and is a successful entry in their catalog. Explaining how I rate stuff was important, because I’m still giving this a 4.5/5 purely because of their importance to me, and how much I do really enjoy the album.
