New Again (2009)

TAKING BACK EMO: Long Island-based Taking Back Sunday

Kudos to Taking Back Sunday, a sensitive, surprisingly durable Long Island quintet that's weathered the departure of two lead guitarists and the general collapse of its entire weepy genre. On New Again, the emo survivors manage to reinvent themselves as mainstreamo shredders. Sure, singer Adam Lazzara still gets beaucoup mileage out of tongue-lashing his exes (girlfriends and guitarists), but on muscly tracks such as ''Lonely, Lonely'' and ''Carpathia,'' his band seems more interested in mature concerns like, y'know, rocking out. Proof it's possible to grow without growing up. A–

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