Long time favourites of mine, A Day To Remember, have been through the wars of a long court case with their (former?) label Victory Records or more specifically the owner Tony Brummel. Unsure as to whether they were going to be allowed to release the long awaited album Common Courtesy, it feels as though the world has been holding their breath, but finally the band won their case - for the time being anyway - and the album was put up on their website for download yesterday. I sat listening to the album over and over and watched the internet explode only second to the way it did when Fall Out Boy came back. Many have called the album their best yet and it's really not hard to see why.
Opening with a defiant "fuck yeah" on 'City Of Ocala' could have come across unnecessary and horribly cliche but with all the utter crap that they've been dragged through we're all right there with them, fists in the air yelling in unison. A Day To Remember have their very own sound - which a long time ago no one believed in - and this album is plastered with signature ADTR traits. Mosh calls on tracks like 'Right Back At It Again' will no doubt have Jeremy McKinnon unleash hell at live shows with "BRACE FOR IMPACT," or the "NO FUCKING RESPECT" on the best titled track of the album 'The Document Speaks For Itself." The first ten minutes of the album are all go, go, go pop-punk with the heavier breakdown worthy riffs and catchy as hell choruses that make ADTR songs. One of the best examples of this is "You wanna take, take, take, take, take it away from me" on 'Sometimes You're The Hammer, Sometimes You're The Nail' which also includes a shiver inducing bridge, "I reserve my right to feel uncomfortable, reserve my right to be afraid. I make mistakes and I am humbled every step of the way. I want to be a better person, I wanna know the master plan," that ends in an all out breakdown.
Surprisingly, what makes this album so different from previous releases is that it is broken up with softer acoustic numbers that are uncommon in ADTR's repertoire. We've had 'If It Means A Lot To You' and 'You Had Me At Hello' but now we've got 'I'm Already Gone' which gave me goosebumps and also made me double check i'm still listening to Common Courtesy. For some it may be too different, too acoustic for them and they'll write it off and whinge about how they've changed but in all honesty it is a truly gorgeous song and the same goes for 'I Surrender' and 'End Of Me' which isn't strictly all acoustic but rather builds like Paramore's 'Future' into something altogether epic.
Common Courtesy isn't groundbreaking musicianship or anything crazily different - albeit the acoustic tracks spread throughout the album. It's taken the formulaic outline of typical ADTR and perfected it. The pop is poppier, the heaviness is heavier and that seems to be the general theme throughout. What the band do, they have honed in on and are geniuses at it now. 'Best Of Me' demonstrates this with total head-banging, sing-a-long brilliance whilst tracks like 'Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way' will show you by blasting you onto another continent.
Closing with three minutes of tour stories on 'I Remember' almost felt like the band were saying goodbye to everything but with one look back on the album it's clear that they're saying goodbye to the old ADTR. The one where people doubted them and took the piss. The one where Tony Brummel thought he could control them. Hell no not anymore. A Day To Remember are far from over and Common Courtesy with all it's fight is going to catapult them even further into easycore - if that's even a thing - stardom.
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