Transit
Listen & Forgive
Rise Records (2011)
Sounds Like: Transit, American Football, Northstar, and a dash of Algernon Cadwallader blended into a catchy milkshake.
Score: 10/10
October has long been my favorite month of the year. The weather in Vegas finally starts to get nice, the baseball playoffs get going, Subway makes any foot-long sub five bucks, I turn a year older, and it ends with candy and costumes for Halloween. But this year there was an extra perk, an added bonus to what was already the finest 31 days of them all. October 4th saw Rise Record’s prized youngsters in Transit release an album that is downright exquisite.
When Listen & Forgive’s first single/video “Long Lost Friends” came out, eyebrows were raised and speakers were turned up. Transit’s 2010 release Keep This to Yourself had been pop-punk with an aggressive kick and this new record features a much softer, mellower and more intricate sound. The slower tempo, catchy hooks and guitar licks on “Long Lost Friends” acted as the perfect preview and made me instantly excited to hear more. My excitement was definitely rewarded with what the rest of the record has to offer.
Listen & Forgive blends traditional pop-punk influences with old school mid-western emo attributes. It’s a tough tightrope to tread, but songs like “Cutting Corners,” with its soaring chorus and the jam session at the end, prove that Transit is more than capable of pulling it off.
Transit’s ability to expertly mix different tempos is admirable. There are a few songs that are slow, melodic, and semi-acoustic (“Skipping Stone” and “Over Your Head” come to mind) and then there are those like the leadoff track “You Can’t Miss It” and the re-done “1978” that step on the gas and refuse to ease up. When a band uses the same tempo or template for their songs, it’s easy to grow bored with them but Transit keeps listeners on their toes with changes in pace, style, and even vocalists (Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy joins in on “All Your Heart”).
Lyrically, Listen & Forgive is absolutely above average. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the best-written album of the year, but it’s definitely one of them. “Over Your Head,” “Long Lost Friends,” and “All Your Heart” are the lyrical highlights with “Over Your Head” featuring one of my favorite lyrics, “I miss when you and I were us, and everything was ours. Lost in an ocean of passing days and cars, you stood out like every accident does.”
Honestly, the only trouble I could find with this album was picking a favorite song. “Don’t Make a Sound” and the title track will be stuck in your head for days thanks to Joe’s impressive vocals. “Asleep at the Wheel” caught my attention almost immediately because of the fun pace that makes you want to dance and one of the catchiest choruses I’ve heard in my twenty-plus years. Sequentially last but far from least is “The Answer Comes in Time,” which is rapidly morphing into my favorite finale to any album. It’s another song with a quick and melodic beat but they incorporate rough background vocals and an amazing chant to end the record. It’s just great.
It’s impressive how smooth and seamless the band’s musical growth has been and Listen & Forgive sounds like a culmination of years of progress. It will make you reminisce about your life in one song and get you to stand up and boogie on the next. You don’t go on a cross-country tour with the likes of Bayside and Saves the Day unless you deserve it. And if you take my advice and go out and buy this spectacular album, you’ll see that these guys undoubtedly do.
-Felipe Garcia
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