Bayside
The Walking Wounded
6.3
First of all, I feel bad about the accident that befell Bayside, and claimed the life of drummer John Holohan back in 2005. It sucks, regardless of whether or not I’ve ever been a fan of their music. As bad as I feel about the events, I can’t be quite as sensitive while reviewing The Walking Wounded, because for readers of this particular site, aside from a few nice leads, there‘s not much to talk about. So unless you’re already into these guys, consider me putting my hand on your back and gently pushing you along to that Dew-Scented review.
For those of us who will try anything twice, there’s something creatively missing here, and I can’t figure out what it is. To their credit, Bayside keep things pretty uptempo and easy to follow along with, but catchy as hell in a way that borders on annoying. Bubblegum pop-punk verse arrangements dripping with irony are everywhere, and overall this is a very happy sounding album with a very unhappy atmosphere to it, which I personally don’t care for at all. Anthony Raneri uses vocal arrangements that are virtually interchangeable through a good 80% of the material here, which wouldn't be so bad if he was a little more adventurous, other than using a few special effects on occasion. Even though lyrically and musically songs like “Dear Your Holiness” and “Thankfully” are decent enough, this whole disc sounds like it was recorded on autopilot. Nearly all of these tracks are formed from an identical template and it become terribly redundant very quickly. It’s as though they took one really cool song and rewrote it twelve times. If their intent was to create an album that embodied the emotional and physical wreckage left behind, perhaps they succeeded, because this sounds like the band has been worn down.
I know many accuse these guys of trying to sell out in the worst way, but this is actually a very hard album to simply jump onto and bounce around like an idiot to. There’s some heavy-headed stuff here, and some things that perhaps only the band can relate to. Since I'm truly no expert about Bayside, my views are based directly on the sound of the disc, and nothing more. I don’t care who they play gigs with or who endorses them, for this general type of music The Walking Wounded sounds, well…hurt. Rather drained. There’s that certain ‘something’ that this album lacks, it sounds, literally, dazed and a little confused even though it’s not horribly assembled. There’s just too much of nothing going on, and that’s a shame. Sorry, I just don’t get it.
