Review Summary: A dark as hell concept album that isn't the most cohesive ever, yet still resonates and takes a lot of risks for a sophomore release.
I’ve always felt like Senses Fail don’t get enough credit. Buddy Nielsen and his NJ act are generally a mix of emo, metalcore, pop-punk, and other genres at times too. They’re one of my favorite bands, but I admit their discography is a bit of a mixed bag. For every emo classic like ‘Let it Enfold You’, you have a weird experiment that didn’t quite land such as ‘Pull the Thorns From Your Heart’.
Speaking of that debut album, ‘Let it Enfold You’ (LIEY), it was always going to be a hard release to follow up. Somewhat annoying yet extremely unique vocals and an extremely dark feeling made the album certainly a debut to remember, and I still love classics like ‘Buried a lie’ and ‘Rum is for drinking’. So how exactly did they follow it up? A concept album about losing faith and eventually the will to live, and a sonic move into more of a post-hardcore type of sound, so abandonign the ear splitting screams of a song like ‘Irony of dying on your birthday’ (Which I actually like).
After the short intro ‘The Rapture’, you’ll hear this immediately on the opener ‘Bonecrusher’. I ***ing love this song. Fantastic riff and lyrics here. You’d think it’s about a lost love or something at first, but most believe this to be an analogy about faith. Makes sense. But it should definitely be noted that Buddy has changed up his vocal technique a bit. Some call it whiny, I call it a more refined improvement over his previous style. He’s easier to understand I think now and just generally sounds more pleasant. ‘Sick or Sane (Fifty for a twenty)’ gives us more of the same, but it’s welcome. It actually features a screamed breakdown at the end, to show that screamo’s influence on SF is not exactly completely gone.
You probably know the singles ‘Can’t be Saved’ and ‘Calling all cars’. And I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge Calling all cars fan. It’s an okay song but I don’t think it ties into the album that well, and just isn’t as musically interesting as other songs. I will say though that Can’t be saved is great and is one of their biggest songs for a reason. It fits in a lot better and shows the supposed character in the album feeling lost and confused and he sinks deeper into his crisis of faith.
‘Shark Attack’ is a much simpler song that I would dare to say is almost filler, but It’s still solid. I see it as maybe consulting a psychiatrist or something, but then realizing that not even they can help this demented character now. However the title track that comes next is FANTASTIC. This track is angry, confused, and desperate. Lyrics are crying out that the guy has lost control of his life and can do nothing. I honestly feel like this may be the point in the album where the character decides he’s done and that he wants to die. It just gets darker from there, and musically the song is intense. It’s great, and despite how dark it is, it’s a really good song.
A HUGE outlier here is the song ‘To All The Crowded Rooms’. This song could be seen as the character maybe sarcastically saying he loves his life, but really it’s Buddy thanking all the fans of SF that kept him going. While I like the song, I’d rather it have been a bonus track, as it kind of messes up the tone of the song. To make matters worse it is followed by the depressing ballad ‘Lost and Found’. The song is much more musically low key and uses the analogy of being lost at sea. It’s another great one, and is definitely the calmest moment here.
‘Every Day is a Struggle’ and ‘All the best cowboys have daddy issues’ are the next two songs, and they’re both ridiculously dark. I don’t quite get the meaning of Struggle in comparison to the rest, as it talks much more directly about a girl, rather than using clever analogies like Bonecrusher did. Musically it’s great and heavy, but maybe would’ve fit better on LIEY. And then there’s cowboys, one of the best songs here. The track sees the character collecting his thoughts as he prepares to do the unthinkable. He thinks about his parents, and says that he is ‘happier than I could have ever known’. Holy ***, this one caught me off guard back when I first heard it. One of the darkest tracks in this whole discography, without a doubt. It’s a glimpse into the mind of a truly hopeless person who’s made a final choice, and it’s dark. I can’t think of anything else to describe this.
Interlude ‘Negative Space’ plays as the man follows through and presumably falls from a high building. It leads into closing moment ‘The Priest and the Matador’ as he dies. I don’t even know what I can say about this track. A man is dying from the impact of a fall, screams at people not to pray for him, and as first responders come, he apparently dies and goes to hell. The William Tell analogy is one I had to read up on to understand, but it’s interesting. This is not my favorite track musically, but the feeling of it and the emotion is masterfully done. It’s genuinely haunting, and that’s where Still Searching ends.
This is a truly great sophomore album, and it is RISKY. I don’t know many bands that would do something like this for just their 2nd release, but SF took the risk, and it paid off. Elements of their previous sound are still here, but it’s catchier, and yet still somehow dark as all hell. Just tell me that Cowboys doesn’t chill you to the bone. It certainly does me.
Overall, I recommend it. If you haven’t given SF a chance before, this may be a good place to start for you. Thanks for reading.
Tracks to check out: Bonecrusher, Still Searching, All the best cowboys have daddy issues, Can’t be saved, Sick or Sane (Fifty for a twenty), Lost and Found
