Louder Now

Louder Now
Studio album by Taking Back Sunday
Released	April 25, 2006
Recorded	Hollywood, California
Genre	Emo, Alternative rock
Length	45:38
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Eric Valentine
Professional reviews
AbsolutePunk.net (75%) link Allmusic link Kerrang! Rolling Stone link
Taking Back Sunday chronology
Where You Want to Be (2004) Louder Now (2006) Notes From the Past (2007)
Alternate cover
Special Edition CD/DVD Dual Cover

Louder Now is the first major label release from Taking Back Sunday. The first single off the album is "MakeDamnSure". The song "Error Operator" has been released on the Fantastic Four 2005 film soundtrack, but has been revamped for Louder Now, resulting in the 2005 version becoming known as the 'F4 Edit'. Louder Now was leaked onto the internet in its entirety on April 19, 2006. Other countries' release dates are posted on the official Taking Back Sunday website. There were two other songs recorded during the Louder Now sessions, "Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something)" and "Sleep". "Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something)" is on the iTunes bonus version of Louder Now, and "Sleep" is on the "MakeDamnSure" UK single released May 22.

The title Louder Now comes from the song "What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?", as well as "Bonus Mosh Pt. II" on their second album Where You Want To Be.

This was the band's last album of new material that Fred Mascherino played on.

Late 2006, a special edition CD/DVD was released entitled Louder Now: PartOne.

The album was voted the best of 2006 in Kerrang! magazine's end of year poll.

As of June 9, 2008, the album has sold 900,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Track listing

All songs written and arranged by Taking Back Sunday.

1. "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" – 3:47
2. "Liar (It Takes One to Know One)" – 3:09
3. "MakeDamnSure" – 3:32
4. "Up Against (Blackout)" – 3:02
5. "My Blue Heaven" – 4:09
6. "Twenty-Twenty Surgery" – 3:55
7. "Spin" – 3:39
8. "Divine Intervention" – 4:14
9. "Miami" – 3:41
10. "Error: Operator" – 2:51
11. "I'll Let You Live" – 5:07

Bonus Tracks

• "Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something)" - iTunes exclusive - 4:33
• "Sleep" - Japan import, United Kingdom "Make Damn Sure" CD single and In Liar (It Takes One to Know One)- 3:19

Singles

• "MakeDamnSure"
• "Twenty-Twenty Surgery" (UK Only Single)
• "Liar (It Takes One to Know One)"
• "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?"
• "My Blue Heaven"

Special edition

On December 12, 2006 Taking Back Sunday released a special CD/DVD version on the album entitled The Louder Now DVD: PartOne. The DVD was the first from the group and the CD/DVD was packaged in a dual cover, featuring the original album cover and a new cover by Greg Watermann. The CD includes the original 11 tracks plus four live tracks.

DVD features

The DVD contains over 60 minutes of footage, documenting the making of the album, their world tour and also live and behind the scenes footage of a show at the Long Beach Arena. The band's website states that "...it has more behind the scenes footage than we've ever released before - about 60 minutes of the clowning around that you know and love."

Dual cover

Louder Now: PartOne had a dual cover, containing the original cover as well a new cover: a photo by Greg Watermann. The photo was taken during the band's Long Beach Area show in the summer of 2006, and was chosen because it contained all five band members.

Leaked demos

Months after the release of the disc, various demos were leaked on to the Internet, and it was reported that a user on TBSUnion, a Taking Back Sunday fansite, had used hacking to obtain the demos, though no confirmation was made. Entitled Louder Now Live Tracking, the tracklisting is as follows.

1. "What's It Feel Like To Be a Ghost"
2. "Twenty-Twenty Surgery (take 2)"
3. "Liar"
4. "Twenty-Twenty Surgery"
5. "Divine Intervention"
6. "I'll Let You Live"
7. "Local Anesthesia (aka Sleep)"
8. "Brooklyn"
9. "Untitled"
10. "My Blue Heaven"
11. "Miami"

Album art

The cover for the album began as a photograph the band found called 'New York City, 1963' by a New York photographer named Joel Meyerowitz.

The band had this to say: "We thought the irony of the speaker covering someone's persona, making something both more prominent yet more hidden at the same time was really interesting. So we called Mr. Meyerowitz and he was nice enough to let us share his photo so we could create our cover. Brad did the rest and the result is 'Louder Now'."

There are two versions of the album artwork, one is the original album art cover, the other, is the one used to promote the single 'MakeDamnSure' on selected websites.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2008)

• Lead singer Adam Lazzara has been known to play "Divine Intervention" live, as a solo piece, by playing acoustic guitar and a harmonica attached to his shoulders, while singing.
• Most of the songs on Louder Now have titles which are in the song lyrics, compared to the previous two albums, where most song titles are not mentioned in the songs themselves.
• Louder Now is also mentioned in "Bonus Mosh Pt. II" on the album Where You Want to Be. The album title however, derives from Fred's backup vocals in the chorus of "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" where he repeats "louder now, louder now" several times.
• On "7th Avenue Drop", a FUSE show where bands play songs from their new records before they are released, the band confirms that "Louder Now" came from "What's It Feel Like to be a Ghost?".
• The title "What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?" is the name of the episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation that features Taking Back Sunday. In addition, the episode featured What's It Feel Like to Be A Ghost and a live version of "MakeDamnSure"[1].
• The phrase "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" is the first spoken dialogue in the comic series 100 Bullets.
• The lyrics from the chorus of My Blue Heaven originated from Breaking Pangaea's song Wedding Dress, from their album Cannon to a Whisper. Breaking Pangaea was Fred Mascherino's band before Taking Back Sunday.
• The original version of the song "Error: Operator" is featured as the theme for Mr. Fantastic on the game Fantastic Four, an instrumental of the song is used on some levels, and the song is also used in the Fantastic 4 movie & featured on the soundtrack cd.
• The song "Error: Operator" is also featured in the promo video for Madden NFL 2007, while "Spin" is a highlight on the game's actual soundtrack.
• The vocals on the song "Divine Intervention" were recorded on the roof of the studio.

External links

• Taking Back Sunday Official website

References