Bayside Vacancy Album

BaysideVacancy

Hopeless Records/UNFD
August 19th, 2016
8
A raw portrait of divorce

Not since Tiger Woods made headlines has there been an entertaining portrayal of divorce like Bayside’s seventh record Vacancy. Singer Anthony Raneri’s manages to wrench an “oh well, it’s done now” attitude out of the dissolution of his second marriage, and the band are all the better for it. This is a cabaret show that manages to turn crushing heartbreak into some of the catchiest hooks and riffs of the year. Producer Tim O’Heir, no stranger to show tunes, is to thank for the theatrical lean that Vacancy fully embraces on tracks like I’ve Been Dead All Day.

This is a cabaret show that manages to turn crushing heartbreak into some of the catchiest hooks and riffs of the year.

Not Fair is reminiscent of your first ever ghost train experience, both menacing and campy in equal measures. At the end though, it’s time to go right back through it again because the experience is just too damn good to pass up. Feel that tapped guitar solo in Rumspringa and try to stop the grin from stretching the corners of your mouth. Moments like these in the first half of the album smash a heady rush of showtunes in rapid succession. As the record enters its back half, the tempo slows and focuses more on introspection than sweeping metaphors. It’s time to ditch the programs, but there are no crocodile tears in this refrain. Raneri may not sound too concerned during It’s Not As Depressing As it Sounds but it’s hard not to root for his dogged pursuit of happiness. The singer laments in Enemy Lines, “After 6 records and 2 marriages/I’m still here paying dues.” If albums like Vacancy are the debts that Raneri still has to pay, let’s hope he never manages to clear them.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Enemy Lines, Not Fair, It’s Not As Depressing As It Sounds

STICK THIS NEXT TO: Say Anything, Taking Back Sunday, Cartel


Vacancy is out August 19 through Hopeless Records/UNFD


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