Taking Back Sunday

For more than twenty years Taking Back Sunday have sustained steady chart visibility, evolving from their emo and post-hardcore origins toward a broader strain of hard melodic rock. Having served an apprenticeship in the East Coast punk underground, the group emerged as one of the prominent acts during the early-2000s emo surge and issued their widely cherished 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends. They soon crossed into the mainstream via three consecutive Top Ten albums, among them 2006’s Louder Now. Although several notable personnel changes occurred, the band persisted into the following decade, reassembling their classic lineup for a self-titled 2012 release. As their songcraft grew more refined, longtime supporters remained loyal, enabling later efforts such as 2014’s Happiness Is and 2016’s Tidal Wave to register strongly on both sides of the Atlantic. The ensemble marked its twentieth anniversary in 2019 via the retrospective compilation Twenty before delivering its eighth studio album, 152, in 2023.

The band coalesced in late 1999 on Long Island, adopting its name from a track by local act the Waiting Process. Its initial roster, which featured future Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey, proved fleeting. Following a pair of self-released EPs in 2000, Lacey, vocalist Antonio Longo, and drummer Steven DeJoseph departed. Guitarist Eddie Reyes and guitarist/co-vocalist John Nolan recruited singer Adam Lazzara, drummer Mark O’Connell, and bassist Shaun Cooper to stabilize the new configuration. They promptly secured a deal with Victory Records and tracked their debut at New Jersey’s Big Blue Meanie Recording Studios with producer Sal Villanueva and engineer Tim Gilles. The resulting 2002 album Tell All Your Friends combined Lazzara’s emotive delivery with the dual-guitar attack of Reyes and Nolan, yielding a classic hardcore foundation overlaid with pop structures. It performed solidly with both critics and buyers, eventually attaining platinum certification after entering the Billboard 200 at number 183 and spawning the enduring single “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team).” Extensive touring occupied the remainder of that year and much of the next, yet the exits of Nolan and Shaun Cooper again cast uncertainty over the group’s prospects. Guitarist/vocalist Fred Mascherino (ex-Breaking Pangaea) and bassist Matt Rubano (ex-Schleigho) joined in time for the fall 2003 tour and ensuing sessions.

Where You Want to Be, the sophomore release, surfaced in mid-2004 and opened at number three on the Billboard 200, positioning Taking Back Sunday among the leading voices of the commercial emo wave. It also spotlighted the vocal chemistry between Lazzara and Mascherino that briefly defined one of the band’s signature textures. Steady road work followed, including a sold-out North American headline run and multiple Warped Tour appearances. Capitalizing on that momentum, the group signed with Warner Bros. in June 2005 and shared bills with Jimmy Eat World. Recording for the third album began in August under producer Eric Valentine (Third Eye Blind, Queens of the Stone Age). Louder Now arrived in April 2006, debuting at number two and spawning the hit “MakeDamnSure,” which charted on three U.S. tallies and reached number one in the U.K. The set adopted a darker, more aggressive stance that captured the band’s onstage intensity, later documented on the concert package Louder Now: Pt. Two. Fred Mascherino departed in October 2007 to pursue solo work. Several months afterward, Matt Fazzi (ex-Facing New York) was installed as his replacement, and the refreshed lineup spent most of 2008 composing and performing intermittently.

New Again appeared in June 2009, bearing an increasingly pop-oriented approach and marking Fazzi’s first contributions; it returned the band to the Top Ten at number seven. The live album Live from Orensanz followed in 2010, preceding another roster adjustment. With the original Tell All Your Friends lineup restored, the group entered the studio for its fifth album. Issued in June 2011, the self-titled record projected renewed vigor and paved the way for anniversary activities. To commemorate a decade since the debut, the reunited members toured in 2012 performing Tell All Your Friends in full; an acoustic live recording of those shows surfaced mid-year. After fulfilling their Warner Bros. obligations, they moved to Hopeless Records and collaborated with producers Marc Jacob Hudson and Mike Sapone on Happiness Is. Released in March 2014, the album extended their commercial streak by debuting at number ten on the Billboard 200 while topping three additional U.S. charts. Sessions for the next project took place in North Carolina with Sapone again producing; the resulting seventh album, Tidal Wave, arrived in 2016 displaying greater maturity and stylistic breadth, reaching number 36 at home and number two in the U.K.

Following founding guitarist Eddie Reyes’s exit, Taking Back Sunday launched an extensive twentieth-anniversary tour in 2019 and issued the career-spanning compilation Twenty, which featured two new tracks including the single “All Ready to Go.” A deluxe reissue of Tell All Your Friends appeared three years later, appending original-session demos. Under a fresh agreement with Fantasy Records, the band enlisted pop producer Tushar Apte for its subsequent full-length. Titled after a frequently cited North Carolina roadway and fronted by the upbeat, anthemic single “The One,” the eighth album 152 was released in October 2023.