Reviews

This band is the living embodiment of all the hype I’ve ever heard about an emo band. The main difference between Bayside and any other ‘emo’ band is that Bayside delivers - tight songs, emotionally distressed lyrics that dabble in clichés but effectively rewrite them, and a healthy and hearty sense of humor. Singer Anthony Raneri has one of those once in a lifetime voices; one that twenty years from now will not have been replicated, only imitated.  He sounds always slightly, purposefully, a half note flat - but in a way that always sounds perfect. Lead guitarist Jack O’Shea is one of the best guitarists on Victory right now, almost doubtlessly the best in a pop-punk band.  Bayside is a heavy pop rock outfit, with blunt and/or hilarious lyrics (depending on your level on cynicism) sung with a clean distinctive voice, highlighted by impressive technical melodic guitar lines.
 
Bayside has been lighting impressive fires since their early days and really came onto their own with their split with Name Taken. Their first Victory full length was an extension of that same sound, but not exactly a progression. With this, their self titled sophomore album, Bayside has started a blaze that may burn out of their control. Every song has an enormous hook, a cruel or clever twist of phrase that is effectively barbed and easily swallowed. 
 
The track They Looked Like Strong Hands could be just another song about being in a band, but the vulnerability and uncertainty in lyrics like “I have this disease where I never go home” are refreshing and “Never telling the truth about how this life eats away. Not admitting I’m fake and I’m questioning whether this whole thing is worth it to die poor and all alone” is soul bearing.  Blame It On Bad Luck is a similarly conventionally grounded but exceptionally enacted song about growing up (key line: “My first fuck, my first fuck up.”).  And the very next track, We’ll Be OK is a sparse, devastatingly honest song about the effects of hooking up with kids in the scene. Bayside’s take on it?  “I got sex, you got fame.”
 
As pop-punk bands homogenize under increasing scrutiny by the mainstream press and the deep-pocketed major labels, it is nice to see a band that breathes life into a tired genre and leaves their own indelible mark.  Bayside takes everything that has gone wrong with punk love songs and chest opening, wound examining lyrics and makes it go right for forty sweet self-titled minutes.