Killing Time by Bayside

I’ve been a passive Bayside observer since the 2005 release of the single “Devotion and Desire.” Something about the powerful guitar lines and the furious vocals cut right to my angst-ridden 17-year-old heart. Regrettably, this didn’t hold true for the rest of the album. Disappointed, I shelved my appreciation for this band, still holding a vague hope that one day they’d release something that would live up to the raw energy of the song that wound up on so many of my post-heartbreak mixes.

Upon hearing “Sick, Sick, Sick,” the first single off of Bayside’s new album, Killing Time, I had a good feeling about it- like this would be the release I was looking for when I was 17. Lo and behold, it opens with the song “Already Gone,” an intense tune that immediately pulls in the listener. In tandem with the lyrics brimming with satisfied bitterness and self-loathing is a guitar hook that’s ripe for a summer car ride with the windows down and the volume high.
Time is a mix of energy and anger, momentum and meltdowns, volume and vitriol. If Morrissey could provide the soundtrack to a rainy day, this one could serve as a soundtrack to an earthquake, the words radiating inescapable heat and the instrumentals providing the rumbling background.

Lead guitarist Jack O’Shea’s work on this album is technically superior to what I’ve heard from him previously, the breakdowns fitting in better and flowing meticulously with the tracks. This was a pleasant surprise, as on past albums I’ve found his guitar work masterful, albeit at times (such as on their self-titled release) lacking originality and then, later, too understated and clearly sidelined from what was happening in the rest of the song and not given sufficient attention. On Time, all the musicians are clearly on the same page, producing a tight, solid album with no songs that beg to be skipped.

Bayside isn’t exactly a band known for their wide spectrum of musical experimentation. This is a quality that bothers a lot of music listeners in general, but my theory is that if a lot of a musician’s work sounds similar, but it’s good, it doesn’t matter. It just makes it more fun to pick out the subtle differences. In Killing Time, the major departure from the past is in the energy. While the past couple of albums have been less than enthusiastically delivered, the band’s latest effort, delivered in the form of 10 songs in 36 minutes, is set apart by its dynamism. This isn’t a term applied in relation to the tempo of the songs, but in their delivery: even the slower tunes have an element of vigor not noticeably present in previous releases.

There are definitely times when I listen to this band and wonder how many girls have broken singer Anthony Raneri’s heart in order to enable him to compile so many songs about roughly the same subject, and why he hasn’t learned his lessons yet… but when I listen to Time, the clever, relatable lyrics that tear at the jugular of heartbreak and loneliness woven in with the wall of sound provided generously by the other three members, I’m not sure it’s in the best interest of his listeners for him to stop getting himself into unpleasant situations.