'Happiness Is'

Emo is a funny genre.

There isn’t a decided-upon canon of classic records. Most bands who fit the genre’s conventions insist they don’t. And depending on who you ask, the scene either started out as recently as Fall Out Boys’ 2005 album “From Under the Cork Tree” or as far back as Rites of Spring’s 1991 LP “End on End.”

Taking Back Sunday doesn’t see itself as part of the current emo revival. No surprises there.

The band’s sound, even in its early days, never had much in common with modern twinkle daddies like Algernon Cadwallader, Snowing or Dads — Sunday’s is a brand of emo that fits squarely in with poppy, radio-friendly vibes of early 2000s emo, not the raspy and noodle-y stuff of the ‘90s Midwest scene. 

Taking Back Sunday also never really went away.

The band released a new album every couple years or so, the last of which was a tepid self-titled affair that sounded like the boys had lost whatever fire had made their first few records such cathartic fun.

“Happiness Is” fairs better. “Stood a Chance” is an absolute blast of a song and one hell of a single with some hilarious lyrics. “A body like a welcome mat” might be my favorite put-down since Gareth Campesinos! likened himself to an avocado. It’s the sound of a band that, despite its age, still knows how to have fun.

Another highlight, closer “Nothing at All,” is an acoustic ballad that falls just short of classic acoustic pop-punk closers a la “Soco Amaretto Lime” but still manages to tug at the heart strings.

It ain’t all pogoing fun and mascara-slathered melodrama, though. “Flicker, Fade” sounds like a Manchester Orchestra B-side with a weaksauce chorus that’ll make you wish you hadn’t deleted “Liar (It Takes One to Know One)” off your iPod. “Beat Up Car” features a dragging verse, repetitive chorus and remarkably plain lyrics.

But for the most part, these missteps are few and far between. If you were ever that kid in middle school who memorized that whole back and forth lyrical fight Lazarra and Brand New’s Jessie Lacey had going — the one that starts “So is that what you call a getaway?” — you could do worse than this album.

Sure, it isn’t the masterpiece that the current emo revival needs — though I’d argue The Brave Little Abacus made that record twice, and no one cared either time — but a band like Taking Back Sunday that’s already made some great records and classic songs doesn’t really have anything left to prove.

Ultimately, “Happiness Is” makes a decent argument for mainstream emo, standing as decent a place as any for us to remember what it was like when school sucked, the Warped Tour was supreme and music didn’t have to tie in with one’s credibility.