BY CODY STEEVES
After three long months, American rock band A Day To Remember has released its new album Common Courtesy. The three-month delay was due to court appearances where they fought their current label Victory Records for the right to release the newest instalment privately.
They eventually earned the rights to the album, but did not break free from their five-record deal. Although the band has released five records, the label is refusing to count their two live releases toward the tally. This ruling was possible only because of the loopholes found within the contract that binds A Day To Remember to Victory Records and the vagueness that outlines the terms of agreement.
The band is most well-known for its unique mixture of metalcore and pop-punk. This album’s tracks are more defined than their previous releases with their songs being more defined as a single genre, rather than their unique mixture. The first song on the album, City of Ocala, and the fifth track, Best of Me, hold true to their pop-punk sound and songs such as Violence (Enough is Enough) and The Document Speaks For Itself are purely metalcore. The album seems to divide itself between the two genres rather than mixing them like they previously did on their albums Homesick and What Separates Me From You.
Another interesting difference with Common Courtesy and the band’s previous releases is the amount of acoustic and relaxed songs found on the track listing. I’m Already Gone, I Surrender and End of Me are three acoustic tracks found on the album, where previous albums as those only contained maybe one or two.
What separates this band from every other metalcore band, is A Day To Remember’s ability to make a song flow and change styles so quickly between metalcore and pop-punk. The flow of the tracks was still present, however, with the songs being more genre independent, they removed one of the most prominent features that separated them from other bands.
The album itself flowed nicely, however, the vast majority of the songs that are considered heavier felt very generic and underwhelming. Containing open chords and common breakdowns, they felt lackluster and had “just another track” feeling.
The pop-punk-oriented songs had a similar feeling of genericism and didn’t make a large impact that would separate them from any other pop-punk band. For the most part those songs followed common beats and chord styles found within the pop-punk genre.
The only tracks that were considerably different and stood out were the acoustic tracks. They were soft and melodic and the track End of Me showed the hard rock side of the band throughout the chorus.
Despite the fact that the band fought so hard to release the album independently, the album itself felt like they took away some of the aspects that made them so strong originally. Hopefully, in the future they return to their prominent mixture of metalcore and pop-punk and stay away from dividing the styles.
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