Last year I took my (then 2 and a half year old) daughter to a nearby mall to watch a performance from New York City’s Bayside. She hated it so we wandered around the air conditioned mall instead. I wanted to see them again after catching them on the Warped Tour the year before and after liking their 2006? album The Walking Wounded but I only got a few songs. The group now has a new album out called Shudder and I think it is even better than their last. Singer/guitarist Anthony Raneri’s slow and deliberate vocal cadence and sly melodic sense still remind me (a lot) of Josh Caterer from the Smoking Popes (whose song “Megan” Bayside covered on their Acoustic EP) and musically the band walks the line between sugary pop-punk, darkly Alkaline melodies and a heavier sort of ‘core (though they really aren’t hardcore at all even though they look it). Instead of leaping face first forward, Shudder finds the band taking a step back and simplifying things a bit. Less complex, less adventurous, and less orchestrated than The Walking Wounded, Shudder is way better because of it. The band just sounds more comfortable and more sure of what they do well (perhaps because the current lineup has been together a few years now) and have given us quite an album that keeps getting better with each additional listen. I can’t wait to have the chance to see them live again.
MP3 | Bayside – The Ghost Of St. Valentine Shudder
MP3 | Bayside – No One Understands Shudder
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I bought baysides sirens album because it said,(and this is in nashville tn) try this record if you like the Smiths, Smoking Popes and Jawbreaker….I love all three of those bands, while they sound NOTHING like the popes…I love bayside.