Story Of The Year is a band I have been a fan of for such a long time now, and consistently enjoy their music. Story Of The Year burst on to the scene in 2003 with the release of their album Page Avenue, and have maintained their popularity. Their latest album, Tear Me To Pieces, just dropped today, March 10th, via SharpTone Records but is it worth picking up? Check out what we had to say below as we dissect the album some.
Tear Me To Pieces kicks off with the title track, which I don’t feel that I see that often. For me, personally, I think that is a cool way to set up the tracklisting. It’s kind of like having a title page. Anyways the song is a great song and the perfect way to kick off the album. “Tear Me To Pieces” features great vocals that you can sing along to and brings the heavy in the right spots. Also, damn, can we talk about the drums really digging in, and going to town on this song (and really whole album). “Tear Me To Pieces” gives the listener a good idea of what to expect from the album, and makes them want to keep listening.
This flows effortlessly into the next track on the album, “Real Life”. I absolutely love this song! This is such a catchy song, with lyrics that really get to you. The song has it all from a killer groove to a very well written song. The song follows up “Tear Me To Pieces, so well, and delivers a great one-two punch to start off the album. Now I am going to jump down a little bit, let’s leave some mystery for you to listen to.
I want to touch on “2005”. “2005”, was one of the singles that was released and is one of my favorite songs on the album. It feels a little different then the other songs on the album. I enjoy that it offers a more maybe alt rock feel, and continues to show the versatility of Story Of The Year. One of the things the song does, that I love when bands do, is a wink to fans. I find it so fun when a band calls back to something in their career that fans can be like, “Oh I know what that’s about”. “2005”, leads into a definite change of pace song.
“Sorry About Me”, is a little more somber of a song with touching lyrics that really move you. I love me a good emotional song and this one hits on all levels. While being softer and soothing the majority of the song you still get sections of the song that are filled with such passionate vocals that you can really feel. Let’s jump down to the final songs on the album.
“Knives Out”, is a fun song that you can’t help but want to sing along with. I could see this being an awesome song to hear live and fans really getting behind. This is a song I could see really blowing up on the radio and getting a lot of play. It’s a very accessible song for fans of any form of rock. “Knives Out”, leads into the last song on the album, “Use Me”.
The album finishes much different than how it started. We get such a passionate, powerful song in “Use Me” to send the fans home happy. This is my favorite song on the album, and will definitely be added to playlists for me. This song is right up my alley of what I love listening to so it hits so well for me. There are so many things I can say about how much I love the song. Lyrically the song is powerful and catchy, the vocals are perfectly passionate in parts, and the guitar is played so beautifully to maintain the pace and feel of the song. What a way to close an album! What did we think overall though?
I haven’t had an album that has made me feel this way for a long while. For me this is a perfect album. From start to finish, “Tear Me To Pieces”, just bangs. This instantly is my top 5 favorite albums of all time. There are no skips on here. Story Of The Year comes through an awesome album that showcases all facets of their band and has something for everyone. We can’t recommend this album any higher than we are. This album is an absolute must have. Pick it up here/Spotify/Apple Music!
Track Listing:
- Tear Me To Pieces
- Real Life
- Afterglow
- Dead And Gone
- War
- Can’t Save You
- 2005
- Sorry About Me
- Take The Ride
- Knives Out
- Use Me
Favorite Tracks: (Really entire album but I’ll pick some that really stand out)
- Use Me
- Real Life
- 2005
- Can’t Save You
- Dead and Gone
