Review by Dom Vigil
The best thing about Back To The Middle, the new album by Minneapolis quartet, And We Danced, is its versatility. While Back To The Middle promises to be a hit with fans of pop-punk veterans such as New Found Glory, And We Danced manage to put a new spin on things with this record. Some tracks are more poppy and very vocally and driven, while others sound more like punk anthems, making Back To The Middle an incredibly well-rounded record.
The album starts of with a mellow instrumental intro track with a pretty guitar riff that brings the listener into the album naturally. Then the vocals come in on the first track, “The Ring” and I’m absolutely blown away. The melody and the vocals definitely carry the first track and the “ooh”s throughout the song are catchy, enough to get you bobbing your head along by the end of the track. After “The Ring” comes the slower “Goodnight Toronto.” The vocal style in this track differs from “The Ring,” which definitely showcases the band’s versatility, and the guitar and bass parts are especially strong.
Back To The Middle never gets old. No two songs on the album sound the same, but that’s not to say that And We Danced is all over the place or don’t know what they’re doing with their sound – every track is unique all while serving its purpose on the album, which means that it never gets boring. The acoustic track, “Family Man” is a perfect example of this. The lyrics are especially strong on this emotional track, which really hits hard despite the stripped down quality of the song, and the grittiness in the vocals is especially nice to listen to.
“She Makes Me Breaks Me” is the perfect final track for Back To The Middle. It’s anthematic and big – as if the entire album was leading up to this moment. The ridiculously catchy chorus in “She Makes Me Breaks Me” is bound to get stuck in your head and leave you singing along, hitting repeat just to listen to it all over again. While it’s only seven songs, Back To The Middle is definitely a journey, and And We Danced have more than managed to showcase their immense talent with this album.
Rating: 4.5/5
Listen to “She Makes Me Breaks Me”
1 Comment
Yeah. These guys put down some fantastic music right there. Damn.