Read more: See Taking Back Sunday break down every song on 152

When We Were Young 2024 happens over two days (each with the same lineup) at Las Vegas’ Festival Grounds, on Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20, with headliners My Chemical Romance (playing 2006’s The Black Parade) and Fall Out Boy. Also performing are Pretty Girls Make Graves (their first-announced show in 17 years, playing The New Romance), Dashboard Confessional (playing Dusk and Summer), Coheed and Cambria (playing Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV), Jimmy Eat World (playing Bleed American), Simple Plan (playing No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls), the Used (playing In Love and Death), Pierce the Veil (playing Collide With The Sky), and tons more. Sunday tickets are on sale now (Saturday is sold out).

Taking Back Sunday were also recently announced on the 2024 lineups for Coachella and Bonnaroo, and they’ll also be on tour with Citizen starting in May.

Read more: 50 best albums of 2023

From Taking Back Sunday to Pierce the Veil, find the top fan picks ranked below.

5. Taking Back Sunday – 152

Taking Back Sunday’s latest album, 152, tops off a joyful year. Between surprise backyard shows on their home turf and headlining Sad Summer, the Long Island crew are still kicking and influencing the people around them. Named after the exit where the band and their friends would convene as teenagers before shows, their new record reflects a greater maturity and emotional depth. From “Keep Going,” a driving anthem about betrayal, to sweet love songs like “The One,” 152 is another bonafide great in Taking Back Sunday’s catalog.

4. Story of the Year – Tear Me to Pieces

Story of the Year made a lasting mark on pop punk with their debut album, Page Avenue. Twenty years later, their latest full-length, Tear Me to Pieces, offers similar dramatics that fit right in with those songs. The band clearly know how to write an anthem that will last, like the anxiety-riddled title track that opens with Dan Marsala’s pleads and transitions into a seamless breakdown. None of the album’s songs ever linger too long, but they all offer a nostalgic warmth that makes adulthood feel surreal.

3. Polaris – Fatalism

Polaris’ third studio album, Fatalism, was informed by not only the turmoil that consumed the world over the past few years but also the overwhelming grief that comes with losing a loved one. Marking their final project with lead guitarist Ryan Siew, who passed away in June, the album’s songs, like “Nightmare” and “Aftertouch,” took on new meanings. Needless to say, the Australian metalcore crew pushed themselves to the brink, offering a heaviness that resonates both sonically and emotionally.

2. Trophy Eyes – Suicide and Sunshine

Trophy Eyes ushered in a new era with Suicide and Sunshine. Centering on frontman John Floreani losing his best friend to suicide, the album is deep and unrelentingly vulnerable. “Life in Slow Motion” is a tear-jerker, while “What Hurts the Most” demonstrates the band’s ability to pair sad lyrics against buoyant instrumentals. Floreani’s songwriting chops shine as well — lyrics that will rock anyone who’s experienced deep loss. The result is their most frank and impassioned batch of songs in years. 

1. Pierce the Veil – The Jaws of Life

The Jaws of Life, Pierce the Veil’s first proper album in seven years, sees them return with a brand-new perspective. While the album will certainly appeal to fans of their classic work (think Selfish Machines and Collide with the Sky), the band have also grown up considerably. Perhaps that’s why they reach for different genres, like alt-pop and ’90s rock, to complement frontman Vic Fuentes’ impressive vocal range. It culminates in a wildly catchy mix that will satiate oldheads and captivate new ears.

Taking Back Sunday have announced a 2024 North American headlining tour for this spring and summer in support of their new album 152. They’ll be joined on all dates by Citizen, who also released a new album this year, Calling the Dogs. Tickets for all dates go on sale Friday (Dec. 8) at 10 a.m. local time, with presale and VIP tickets going on sale Wednesday (Dec. 6) at 10 a.m. local. All dates below.

Read more: 20 greatest Hopeless Records bands

“Man, just taking it all in,” Taking Back Sunday say. “We’ve been on a whirlwind on finishing the record, getting everything ready to put it out, making all the plans. Now comes our other favorite part, getting to visit so many cities in North America and playing live. The set will be a good mixture of albums, and the reception for 152 has been so positive that we can’t wait to get out there and play some of those songs for the first time in these cities and make magic all summer. Citizen also put out a great new record, so we’re going to have a good time together. Can’t wait.”

This month, Taking Back Sunday are throwing their annual Long Island/New Jersey Holiday Spectacular shows with Kevin Devine, Oso Oso, Koyo, Common Sage, Neil Rubenstein, and Modern Chemistry. Find more details here.

Watch Taking Back Sunday and Citizen break down their new albums in recent videos for AP.

Taking Back Sunday tour dates
12.5 Woolloongabba, AUS The Princess Theatre
12.6 Marrickville, AUS Factory Theatre
12.13 Wantagh, NY Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall *SOLD OUT
12.14 Wantagh, NY Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall *SOLD OUT
12.15 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom *SOLD OUT
12.16 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom (Holiday Pop-Up Shop)
12.16 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom *SOLD OUT
3.26 Manchester, UK O2 Ritz
3.27 London, UK O2 Forum Kentish Town
3.28 Cardiff, UK Cardiff University Great Hall
5.19 New Orleans, LA The Fillmore New Orleans
5.21 Fayetteville, AR JJ’s Live
5.23 San Antonio, TX Aztec Theatre
5.24 Dallas, TX South Side Ballroom
5.25 Austin, TX Stubb’s
5.26 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall
5.27 Ft. Worth, TX Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall
5.29 Phoenix, AZ The Van Buren
6.4 Portland, OR The Crystal Ballroom
6.5 Seattle, WA Showbox SoDo
6.6 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory
6.8 Edmonton, AB Union Hall
6.9 Calgary, AB MacEwan Hall
6.11 Salt Lake City, UT The Union Event Center
6.12 Denver, CO Mission Ballroom
6.14 Council Bluffs, IA Harrah’s Stir Cove
6.15 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
6.18 Cleveland, OH House of Blues Cleveland
6.19 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
6.21 Minneapolis, MN The Fillmore Minneapolis
7.24 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
7.25 Columbus, OH KEMBA Live!
7.26 Detroit, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre
7.27 Buffalo, NY Buffalo RiverWorks
7.30 Newport, KY MegaCorp Pavilion
8.1 Orlando, FL House of Blues Orlando
8.2 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution Live at the Backyard
8.3 St. Petersburg, FL Jannus Live
8.4 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
8.6 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues Myrtle Beach
8.8 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore Charlotte
8.9 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
8.11 Dewey Beach, DE Bottle & Cork
8.13 Wallingford, CT The Dome at Toyota Oakdale Theatre
8.14 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway
8.16 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore Philadelphia
8.17 New York, NY The Rooftop at Pier 17

Taking Back Sunday’s latest album, 152, comes after a joyful, celebratory year. Between backyard shows, headlining Sad Summer, and crashing weddings, the group are still kicking and influencing the people around them. Naturally, their new record reflects wisdom gained from their many years making music together, possessing an emotional depth and reflective nature from the Long Island crew. From the vulnerable ballad “Amphetamine Smiles” to cute love songs like “The One,” 152 is the next logical step in Taking Back Sunday’s canon.

Read more: Fan poll: 5 best Taking Back Sunday songs of all time

“152 offers a lot more hope and light than we first realized when we were in the thick of it, putting it all together,” the band say. “We’ve been fortunate enough, through our music, to grow up with a lot of people going through the same things at the same time, and probably feeling the same way. Our hope is that you’re able to find a little bit of yourself in this new collection of songs, because you’re not alone, and neither are we.”

The band gave us a track-by-track breakdown of their latest album. See the video, created by Anthony Natoli, below.

Following their stint on this year’s Sad Summer Festival, Taking Back Sunday have been gearing up for the release of their eighth studio album, 152. 

The record marks their first in seven years, and today, they’ve shared the new single “Amphetamine Smiles.” The ballad centers on a longing to reconnect and comes with a music video where the band hang out on boats and share fries at drive-ins. “You could document the writing, arranging, and recording of ‘Amphetamine Smiles,’ but there’s no way to explain how it came together,” John Nolan says. “It’s the product of some kind of magic.”

Read more: Fan poll: 5 best Taking Back Sunday songs of all time

Taking Back Sunday also announced a series of intimate album release shows that will take place in several major cities, including Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York City. Grab tickets here when they go on sale Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. local time.

See the video for “Amphetamine Smiles” below.

Taking Back Sunday’s shift from angsty Long Island upstarts in the early 2000s to beloved punk elders was a journey that unfolded over decades. While they’ve pumped out a lot of classics along the way, they’ve also been boxed in as an “emo band.” That tag, however, doesn’t represent the band’s full power. “To think for one second that all we’re capable of is our first record is a goddamn mistake,” vocalist Adam Lazzara told AP earlier this year.

Read more: 5 most underrated post-hardcore albums of the 2000s

After making the rounds on this year’s Sad Summer Festival, Taking Back Sunday are readying the release of their eighth studio album, 152. To accompany the announcement, they shared the new single “S’Old” and a video, which was filmed at a Long Island backyard house show that nods to their roots.

To prepare for the release, we asked our readers what the best Taking Back Sunday songs are of all time. From “You’re So Last Summer” to “MakeDamnSure,” find the top fan picks ranked below.

5. “Great Romances of the 20th Century”

Here, Taking Back Sunday take us on a ride through grief overtop raucous rock as the band chronicle the end of a relationship — and all the messiness that comes with it. There’s no better track to usher us into a blazing fall as Lazzara sings its enduring opening line: “September never stays this cold.” While Fight Club and Kid Dynamite posters may date the music video, the track remains a sheer classic to those who still believe in it. For the unfamiliar, the demo contains a spoken-word intro that details all the ways “a beautiful girl can make you dizzy,” which is worth a listen.

4. “You’re So Last Summer”

Another staple from their 2002 debut record, “You’re So Last Summer” has remained a vital part of the band’s setlists over the years. The song explores being dropped from a relationship and the misery that follows, as the lyrics brim with a whole lot of despair. If you haven’t seen the music video, you should change that: Flavor Flav joins the band onstage for its entirety as they rock out at an outdoor gig. (The legendary hype man is also a native of Long Island if you’re still scratching your head at the collaboration.)

3. “A Decade Under the Influence”

“A Decade Under the Influence” — the lead single from their 2004 record Where You Want To Be — is another rager that proves the group weren’t losing any stem since their breakout. The chorus is explosive and cathartic, while the lyrics are witty and paranoid. It’s a track worthy of mic swings and mosh pits, and wholly unsurprising that Taking Back Sunday still play it live.

2. “MakeDamnSure”

“MakeDamnSure” is an undeniable classic from their third album, Louder Now. Angry and defiant, the mid-2000s track remains an essential in the band’s catalog. From the onset, the song simmers with energy that soon erupts into a triumphant chorus — a quality that Taking Back Sunday do best. No doubt these lyrics have inspired countless tattoos, as it’s one of the band’s highest-streamed songs to date.

1. “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From the Team)”
“Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From the Team)” is the band’s definitive anthem. From their lauded debut album, Tell All Your Friends, the track hasn’t lost any of its shine over the years. “I don’t think we had any concept that any song we wrote for that record would ever be a single at all when we were writing, or even after the record was done,” John Nolan told AP in 2013. The music video matches the song’s energy, flashing between shots of the band and a fight match. “I think it speaks a lot to where we were emotionally. We were young at the time, so it was our take on the relationships we had experienced,” Lazzara adds.

The album was produced by Tushar Apte (Nicki Minaj, Demi Lovato) and mixed by Neal Avron (New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy). Adam Lazzara says, “You would think after 20 years, we knew what each other is going to do, but there were so many times making this record where I heard the initial idea and thought I knew where it would go, but then I was super surprised. It’s those kinds of surprises that make it so exciting. That’s why we all still want it so badly.”

Read more: The Maine break down every album in their catalog

Along with the announcement, they’ve shared new single “S’Old” and its video, which was filmed at the Long Island backyard house show that TBS played earlier this month. Like the video for previous single “The One,” it stars Taking Back Sunday in the same matching burgundy suits that they’re wearing on the album cover. It’s an anthemic rock song with a chorus and title that plays on the words “sold” and “so old” — according to the song, you’re gonna get both either way. Check it out below.

152 tracklist
1. “Amphetamine Smiles”
2. “S’old”
3. “The One”
4. “Keep Going”
5. “I Am the Only One Who Knows You”
6. “Quit Trying”
7. “Lightbringer”
8. “New Music Friday”
9. “Juice 2 Me”
10. “The Stranger”

Taking Back Sunday tour dates
9/09 — Las Vegas, NV — Freemont Street Experience – (Free Show)
9/29 — Cocoa, FL — Cocoa Riverfront Park
9/30 — Jupiter, FL — Dastoberfest
12/1 — Melbourne, Australia — Good Things Festival 2023
12/2 — Sydney, Australia — Good Things Festival 2023
12/3 — Brisbane, Australia — Good Things Festival 2023

“More dates will be announced soon!”

BY THE TIME MEMORIAL DAY ROLLS AROUND, fans of a certain strain of emotionally charged rock music are hardwired for a long day of sunblock, merch runs, concession stand pizza, and an even longer bill of their favorite bands. Chalk it up to three decades under the influence: Warped Tour’s legendary 25-year run laid the foundation, but since 2019, the traveling fest that crowdsurfed its way to the forefront goes by the name of Sad Summer. 

If you’re seasoned in contemporary emo and pop punk, you’re likely familiar with Sad Summer Festival and its tongue-in-cheek moniker. If you’ve gone before, there’s a good chance you’ve posed for Instagram in front of something hot pink and black (Sad Summer’s trademark color scheme) while caffeinated mosh-pop riffs permeate the sticky air. And if all this is speaking your language, odds are you’re acquainted with Sad Summer’s 2023 headliners: scene godfathers Taking Back Sunday, all ’round alt-rock good guys the Maine, and electro-rock surrealists PVRIS. While the festival criss-crosses America this July, all three bands are standing on the edge of reinvention, new albums in tow, with miles of unexplored interstate ahead. 

Read more: 20 greatest Hopeless Records bands

For now, Adam Lazzara channels a sort of zen restlessness. Chatting from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Taking Back Sunday frontman is eager to engage on Sad Summer and his band’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Tidal Wave, but the many years since his proverbial first rodeo have taught him to dance around the details. He’s scarcely glanced at the tour schedule because he knows his mind’s tendency to tumble down anxious, road-related rabbit holes; he confirms, yes, Taking Back Sunday are in the thick of a new album with pop producer Tushar Apte (whose credits include artists like BTS, BLACKPINK, Demi Lovato and approximately zero rock bands) but won’t go into much sonic detail: “It sounds like Taking Back Sunday because it’s Taking Back Sunday playing it.”

[Photo by Natalie Escobedo]

What gets Lazzara going often involves rock ’n’ roll mythology, and his band’s place within it. References to Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash flow freely. “Did you ever see that [Metallica] documentary Some Kind of Monster?” he asks. “Their guitarist Kirk Hammett talks to a psychologist about how they got so big, so quickly, that part of his development froze in that time, at that age. I would never want to be in a position like that. It’s important to me to continue to grow with my talents, as a person. When I’m shoved into this box, it’s taking away from something I’m very proud of.”

The box he’s talking about is emo nostalgia. “To think for one second that all we’re capable of is our first record is a goddamn mistake,” he says. Taking Back Sunday’s feisty 2002 debut album, Tell All Your Friends, helped open the floodgates for a slew of mainstream emo crossovers, including the Long Island-bred band’s own subsequent gold records, 2004’s Where You Want to Be and 2006’s Louder Now. But as the life priorities of OG fans shift from checking tour dates to paying mortgages and finding babysitters, keeping them engaged with new music can be an ongoing challenge. Grown humans using the term “adult emos” is far cringier than anything being sold at Hot Topic in 2004. Alas, Lazzara is a realist. “It’s not lost on me that doing a tour called Sad Summer is not great reinforcement for my words,” he admits. 

At first, Taking Back Sunday — Lazzara, guitarist-vocalist John Nolan, bassist Shaun Cooper, and drummer Mark O’Connell — were hesitant to join Sad Summer. Mostly because of the name. Lazzara suggested Rad Summer; organizers thanked him for his creative input, said he was free to call it whatever he wanted from the stage, and Taking Back Sunday signed the dotted line. The fact that the Maine were playing helped, too.

Lazzara hit it off with the Maine the first time he met the Arizona quintet, hanging at the Warner LA offices, circa 2010, when both bands were signed to the label. It wasn’t long before they hit the road together. “You do tours and you’re friendly with everybody, but there’s still a wall up… There wasn’t anything like that with the Maine.” As cost-cutting major labels grew increasingly clueless about what to do with rock bands, both went the indie route — TBS with Hopeless Records, the Maine self-releasing. “From that point on, it was us and our fans against the big, bad industry,” Maine drummer Patrick Kirch recalls. “We got rid of all ideas of, ‘This album has to fit into this type of scene.’” 

Survivors of the so-called “neon pop-punk” craze of the late aughts, the Maine ditched their candy-colored deep V-necks and spent the 2010s getting comfortable in their own skin. Beginning with their 2011 LP, Pioneer, they explored many of the same time-tested influences as Lazzara: Tom Petty, Wilco, Pearl Jam. “We’ve done twangy Americana music; we’ve done heavier alt-rock,” frontman John O’Callaghan says. “And we’ve gone as poppy as you could probably go for a band like ours.” 

[Photo by Kyle Dehn]

The Maine’s earworm single “Sticky” enjoyed substantial alternative radio play in 2021 and, eight albums into their career, became the band’s first song to crack a Billboard chart. “It’s the same guitar around the entire song, literally,” O’Callaghan says. “With creation, you can sometimes associate [simplicity] with not being up to par. ‘Sticky’ taught us that simplicity sometimes is OK.” A year later, “Loved You a Little,” a tag-team single with Taking Back Sunday and alt-pop singer Charlotte Sands, charted even higher. But as the Maine discuss their forthcoming album, it’s clear they’re not chasing radio play or Spotify streams.

“When you’ve done nine records, it’s hard to not be yourself,” O’Callaghan says. Last winter, the band hunkered down in the Arizona mountains with longtime collaborator, producer Colby Wedgeworth, for work on their not-yet-titled new LP (as of our late-April conversation, they’ve just begun mixing). “When you have as many albums as we do, people ask, ‘Is it like [2015’s] American Candy or more like a Pioneer kind of record?’” Kirch says. “This isn’t a sister album.” O’Callaghan described a set of songs that reflect how the band see themselves in the current moment. “There’s elements of dance, funk guitars on this record… The common theme is, we want energy. We just wanted to be excited. That’s how you convey that it means something to you in a live setting.”

The Maine hope to release new music in time for the start of Sad Summer Festival, which kicks off July 6 in Jacksonville, Florida and runs through July 29 in Irvine, California. Playing before Taking Back Sunday each of the tour’s 16 evenings, the Sad Summer stage will be a familiar one to O’Callaghan and company. After all, they helped build it.

Back in 2019, the Maine founded Sad Summer — the name, the concept, the branding — and for its inaugural run, enlisted friends like Mayday Parade, State Champs, the Wonder Years, Mom Jeans, and Stand Atlantic (the latter two bands return to open all dates this year, along with Michigan rockers Hot Mulligan). Warped’s run as a traveling festival wrapped in 2018, and the Maine eyed a similar model, with some key differences: a less grueling number of shows for artists and fewer tough lineup decisions for fans. “Warped and other festivals, your two favorite bands end up playing at the same time, and you have to miss one,” Kirch says. “The idea was one stage. Let’s partner up these bands that would be doing their own headlining tours and make something bigger than the sum of its parts.” 

PVRIS, the third large-print band on 2023’s Sad Summer bill, first hit their stride on Warped Tour in 2015. “It was definitely a this is real moment,” frontwoman Lynn Gunn recalls. As momentum built behind their fierce debut album, White Noise, PVRIS jumped from side stages to the Warped’s main one, but the then-21-year-old Gunn frequently felt disconnected from most of the touring party. “I had a bicycle gang. We would ride to get coffee every day, go find parks, go find fireworks, go anywhere that wasn’t Warped Tour.” From her home in Los Angeles, she speaks with the wisdom allotted from nearly a decade to process that Warped Tour summer.

“I didn’t feel comfortable. I had to shrink myself,” Gunn says. “It was very straight, it was very white and it was very male-dominated… Any time we would try to get a certain press feature and expand outward, because we had done Warped Tour, it almost gave us this weird mark because at the time, everything was coming out about a lot of people’s allegations [regarding incidents related to Warped Tour]. It felt unaligned with my beliefs… It was a big building period for our career, but I would have liked a lot to be better. And I hope Sad Summer can do a little bit better.” 

While the live music industry often fumbles inclusion and representation, Gunn’s hope is not lost on the band that founded Sad Summer. “There’s so much that can be improved upon,” O’Callaghan says. 

IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND a casual fan of the Maine. Though they’re far from the biggest rock band, Maine fans skew highly passionate and refreshingly positive. Much of this is due to the live experiences the band have curated over the years: 8123 Fest, the bi-annual hometown Phoenix concert they’ve headlined since 2017, and, of course, Sad Summer. “We’ve been trying to create an environment where people become best friends with a person in the crowd they didn’t know before,” Kirch says. As people, the Maine exude devotion and sincerity; over the years, their fanbase — largely women — grew in that image. “They’re coming to a concert because that’s what they do with their friends,” Kirch says. “We’re the background music for their life.” 

For PVRIS, Gunn’s own coming-of-age story is almost inseparable from her band’s journey and the following she’s nurtured. At 18 years old, the songwriter-producer came out as gay to her parents by leaving them a letter as she departed her childhood home in Massachusetts for PVRIS’ first tour (her family was quite supportive). As the band grew in popularity, PVRIS events took on their own special meaning. Fans sometimes came out to their own parents, often with Gunn’s help, at concerts and meet-and-greets. Now, almost a decade later, Gunn’s tribe is increasingly at peace. “Our fanbase already felt really communal and free in the sense that people could come to these shows and be themselves. I think the current audience just feels even more expansive and diverse than that origin,” she says. 

Creation replaced tension. The band have been live-testing new songs like the fight-or-flight “ANIMAL” and the tranquil “ANYWHERE BUT HERE,” which both appear on their fourth studio album, EVERGREEN (out July 14 via Hopeless Records). “There’s a lot of themes of wanting longevity when everything feels really instantaneous,” Gunn says. “How do you stay true when everything tries to pull you away?” 

[Photo by Bridget N. Craig]

EVERGREEN follows 2020’s Use Me, PVRIS’ major-label debut. “We knew signing with a major was a 50/50 chance from the get-go,” Gunn says. “Any artist that goes from an indie label to a major has a really great story or a really bad one.” PVRIS got the latter. “[Warner] were hoping the pandemic would end within a couple months, which is absurd to think about now.” Use Me was pushed back twice across the course of 2020, before finally seeing the light of day that August. It debuted at No. 155 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, over 100 spots lower than 2016’s attention-grabbing All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell. Unfazed, Gunn saw the big picture. “I was ready to make new music. It felt really strange to be promoting an album during [a pandemic]. It didn’t sit well,” she says. 

There’s a feral energy to EVERGREEN — the guitars, the beats, the lyrics. If you’ve experienced catharsis in a crowd since live music returned post-2020, you understand. “Now, it’s really important we spend our time intentionally,” O’Callaghan says. “At the shows we’ve played since, there’s an energy you can almost feel, like you could grab it out of the air and put it in your pocket,” Lazzara says. 

“Going to shows before I was in [the Maine],” O’Callaghan remembers, “those were places I felt I could be more myself than anywhere else.” 

At Sad Summer Festival, that’s the goal. Whether unveiling new music, experimenting with pop collaborators, or navigating the latest fluctuation in the term “emo,” these artists have all learned what it means to step outside themselves, to build their own communities. And thrive within them. 

“Let’s keep growing together. Let’s fuckin’ see what’s out there,” Lazzara swaggers in his Carolina-Long Island hybrid accent. “It’s a big ol’ world, and there’s lots of wild shit to get into. You’re not going to be able to get into the wild shit if you’re not ready for it.” 

He pauses. “And how are you going to get ready for it? You’ve got to grow.”

“‘The One’ is a sweet love song — full-on John Cusack holding a boombox,” the band say in a nod to the classic ’80s cinema moment in Say Anything. “We’ve been waiting a long time to share this song and we’re so excited that we finally can. We hope you love it as much as we do.”

Read more: How Sad Summer is becoming a better kind of touring emo festival

As they gear up to hit the road IRL, on the Sad Summer nationwide tour, the Long Islanders are giving us a taste of their musical, and personal, growth with the track itself — while satiating the audience with elements of the TBS sound that’s built and carried their strong fanbase. Uplifting, with a sticky, smooth chorus, “The One” delivers on the promise of positivity, one which Cooper crafted in one of his darkest moments. 

The band explain, “This song came from a riff that Shaun Cooper wrote the day he lost his grandmother while she was in a nursing home at the start of the COVID pandemic. Devastated with overpowering sadness, he found comfort in writing music and initially titled the riff ‘Posivibes’ in an effort to find some light through the darkness. He never shared the story of the title or how that riff came together with us until after it was complete. Shaun didn’t want his story affecting the ultimate meaning of the song because it’s actually an uplifting one.”

Taking Back Sunday are set to hit the road this summer for a nationwide tour (they are calling “Rad Summer”), that includes headlining the 16-date Sad Summer Fest 2023 through July and additional dates in August and September.

See the video for “The One” below.