Transit “Joyride” - Music Review
Many opinions, but at least we can agree if Young New England is a very outrageous post-pasnya success of their best album Listen & Forgive in 2011. Actually what makes Young New England is blasphemed to such a bad, 2 things: the material it's bad (they seem to be too hasty in writing it) and unforgivable production (whether they're experimenting with new sounds or anything, which obviously sounds like a decline after Listen & Forgive). Young New England seemed to bring the Transit away from their trajectory which should have been stable as Jimmy Eat World's successor band became a disappointing (slightly) band. Okay it's just one album, not enough reason to then cross out Transit from the list of bands that awaited the album.
In the aftermath of the Young New England disaster, Transit should have begun to refine their material or at least come back with the same grip that made them write Listen & Forgive. But instead of getting the good news, we just got word of Team Landers out of Transit. Fortunately they are unaffected about it and remain consistent on the scheduled release of their new album Joyride which was released on October 21, 2014 through the label Rise Records. The question is what Transit offers this time? Before we guess whether they will release Young New England v2, they have relieved us with their # 12DaysofTransit campaign where they released a new song from Joyride album every day for 12 days to be publicly played.
Oh yes earlier this Joyride album has 12 tracks and let's say if Transit re-playing with their old sound on Joyride album, this is the sound we want from Transit. So the question again, will this end up as exciting as their Joyride album title?
Before answering the question, there are some things that should not be ruled out. First they did re-discover their Transit sound, but not directly means it instantly makes this album equivalent to Listen & Forgive. Secondly, some songs like less finished processed, many songs that sound like a demo that is not fully finished, like the song "Saturday, Sunday", do they deliberately sing in a tone like that? The obvious vocals from Joe Boynton sounded weak and uncomfortable while singing the part "I'll be alright, alright / You'll be okay, okay".
If indeed the main problem of Transit is songwriting, why do not they wait at least another year to collect their material. Do they really have to do it in a hurry to erase the memory of Young New England? Yes who knows ya. The third issue that should not be underestimated from this album is that in some parts, the production of Joe Boynton's vocals sounds uncomfortable and over-inflated, requiring adjustments to follow it, as in the song "Ignition & Friction" on the part "Then there's me, then there's me ". The final issue is the writing of the lyrics. Do not start to talk about the song "Nothing Left to Lose", really Transit? Is that the lyrics you can write?
Nevertheless, Transit wrote some pretty 'sweet' songs on this album, although there are some strange parts but it seems they are forcing us to get used to it. "Too Little, Too Late" is a pretty solid song. Either this is just me or the other too, but after listening, this song as it continues to inhabit the contents of the head. This song is also a proof that pop is the influence they are very prominent in this album, it's promising song though. Okay we can listen to emo, there is also a bit of punk, but pop dominates this album.
Despite all the drawbacks, the album remains much superior to Young New England. So that can be said, Transit managed to move forward, but still they are still behind where they should be. This picture of this album brought Transit forward 3 steps, but their previous album Young New England took them backward 5 steps, or conclusion they are still behind 2 steps from their place after the album Listen & Forgive.
Sad but it's the truth, the vocals of Joe Boynton are the weak points of this album. It's not Joe's fault anyway, the production of his own vocals is quite messy so the vocals sound can not blend with the music. This album is definitely not the best album of the year, even to get into 10 best albums it seems too much. Understandably how Transit wants to make us fall in love with them again, by being Transit like 4 or 5 years ago. This album is fun to listen to when you're on the move, as background music is no more. And after 12 tracks hoping to get Joyride, I reached a conclusion: although the album is still nice to listen to, it is still below the standard of Transit itself.