Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
A few years after the release of the band’s self-titled debut album The Band CAMINO, the trio finally released their much-awaited sophomore album The Dark. Straying away from the sound of the previous album, Spencer Stewart became the lead vocalist on the majority of the album’s songs. The switch, whilst controversial, transformed the album’s sound, making it sound like it belongs to an early 2000s pop-rock theme. It also helps that the album has one underlying theme across all of the songs: heartbreak.
The theme of unrequited love is kicked off with the opening track “Told You So.” The song creates the ultimate dream scenario for anyone broken up by their ex crawling back to them, asking for another chance. Aside from the upbeat instruments which add to the song’s catchiness, the snarky lyrics sell it: “Let me guess, you miss me, you’re sorry.” It’s the type of song that you could belt to, dancing around in your room at three in the morning. “Told You So” bleeds into the album’s next track, “What am I missing?” which captures the frustration you can feel when crying for an ex, whilst knowing they are not worth the tears. The chorus really drives this theme home questioning, “So, What am I missing you for? // Don’t even know anymore.” The chorus is where the instrumentals shine, each word is punctured by both a punchy guitar and a drum.
“Save My Life” is much less vengeful than the other two tracks. The song admits the artist’s self-destruction. It’s almost a confession, that even though the artist would suffer in the long term, being with his partner is worth it for the short-term gain. “I only feel this alive when you’re making it hard to breathe,” sums up the high you can feel when you’re in a relationship with a partner who’s not good for you. Despite resembling the band’s past sounds, the song suffers from its simplicity.
The song “It’s You” takes a step back from the heavy pop-rock guitar and drums, following a much calmer route. Jeffery Jordan offers some good vocals, which gives a nice variation along with Spencer Stewart’s vocals. The song is a good follow-up to “Let It Happen,” which shows that sometimes once you permit yourself to move on, you can start to see that the problem was not you, but them. Garrison Burgess really shines on drums as well, offering a nice change of pace to the album.
However, on the song “Same Page” there is no longer blame being placed on themselves or the other person, but rather, the acknowledgment that sometimes these people aren’t made for each other. The song highlights the isolation one can feel when there isn’t a ‘reason’ to break up with their partner. The last four tracks are where the album stands out. Both ‘Afraid of the Dark’ and ‘Novacaine’ allow space for Spencer Stewart to be vulnerable. This is particularly needed for ‘Novacaine’ given the subject matter of opening yourself up to love after a heartbreak. The very last two tracks, ‘Last Man in the World’ and ‘3 Month Hangover’ stray away from pop punk and focus on lyricism but draw more attention to synths and instrumentals. The guitar solo in ‘Last Man in the World’ is stellar, not holding itself back as it closes the album. The song works as an excellent conclusion to the theme of heartbreak in the sense that the person is ready to head back out and try again.
Overall, The Dark excels in some ways with its catchy lyrics and instrumentals. However, the album suffers from underwhelming lyrics. The album also suffers in its length at 29 minutes and 35 seconds long. A lot of the time, the songs don’t feel as if they’ve been given long enough to expand on the subject matter. Whilst the album thematically works well, one of the reasons for its underwhelming nature is that the songs’ subject matter blends together. However, despite this, the album especially when experiencing heartbreak is fun to listen to even if it is a little lackluster compared to their first album.
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