A Day To Remember- You're Welcome: the Confused Teenager

A Day to Remember is “Right Back At It Again” with a new album. Was it worth the five year wait for the follow-up to Bad Vibrations? That answer is very much up to debate.

When reading up on the reviews for You’re Welcome, they had me very nervous about listening to the album with how critical they were. Despite how critical they were, I decided to give the album a full listen from cover to cover with an open mind. Now that I have listened to the full album, I can say those reviews had a lot of truth to them. This album was certainly not ADTR’s best effort.

Every classic ADTR album’s songs have a unique blend of heavy metalcore breakdowns with catchy pop punk verses and choruses. I tend to enjoy the albums that have the perfect balance of the two or lean towards the heavier side. This album does not fall in either category. It’s very choppy, unbalanced, and appears confused about what it is at some points. It seems that because the band took some time off and switched to a different label, it has forgotten its identity and is searching for a mold it fits into.

In this case, it’s trying too hard to relate to the Pop music crowd. A very strong example of this is shown in the unnecessary use of the theme of money on the album and the amount of times it appears. There are two tracks F.Y.M. (F*ck Your Money) and Only money that are dedicated to the topic of money and have money in their titles. Anyone who has listened to pop music or pop radio growing up knows that money is a cliche topic in that ballpark and it is certainly not a theme that is true to what the band’s identity is built on. (Ex: homesickness, tour life, being one’s self, feeling stuck in a rut, etc.) ADTR needs to stick to the themes it knows, at least the more humble ones.

While the album appears to be a confused, hormone raging teenager going through the deepest depths of puberty, I do think it does have a few gems. Unfortunately, those are mainly the album’s singles and we heard them before the album’s release date. I wish the band’s new label, Fueled By Ramen Records, would have held off on releasing those tracks as singles because I think it spoiled the album. We the fans built our expectations for the album based off its singles and a lot of us are disappointed because the other tracks did not reach the bar we had set in our minds.

Here are my thoughts track by track:

Brick Wall: Starts the album off strong as a fun pop-punk anthem with some EDM synth elements. It’s sound is kind of reminiscent of “Naivety” on the previous album and it’s a little too familiar for my liking. Of course, it ends with a classic heavy ADTR breakdown. 3/5

Mindreader: Awesome track, definitely a gem! It puts the “pop” in pop-punk, because it’s very catchy and it’s like a classic ADTR song without being a repetition of what has already been done in the past. 5/5

Bloodsucker: This is a filler track. It’s a pop song that falls bland with hardly any of the band in it. 1/5

Last Chance to Dance (Bad Friend): This track is very reminiscent of the material on Old Record on its verses. It’s very raw, heavy, and high energy, but then the chorus hits and it’s poppy and unfitting to what leads into it. On top of that, it’s sprinkled with repetitive lyrics and the overall mix is too choppy. If I could describe it in one word, it’s awkward. 2/5

F.Y.M: Strong, summary vibes. I would play this tune on a road trip. I wish the song’s theme was more relatable though. 3/5

High Diving: This song is like every alternative anthem you’d hear on alternative radio. Nothing memorable or spectacular. It’s tolerable. It’s definitely not ADTR. 1/5

Resentment: This IS the ADTR we know and love and this one’s a banger!!! This track is perfectly balanced. I think this track is what the album is trying to be but is not quite there yet. The mix on the track is big, heavy, and full of bass. If the band moves forward in a direction like this track, I’d be really happy! 5/5

Looks Like Hell: This one is hard to follow. I had to skip through parts of it because I could barely get through it. The transitions from verses to choruses are choppy and out of sync. It also falls bland because the mix completely waters down the vocals against the band. The layers compete. 1/5

Viva La Mexico: This one is also a filler song. I can’t hear the band over the heavy synth and artificial beats, but I do like the part of the bridge where it briefly cuts to Jeremy and the acoustic guitar. I wish the song would have taken that part and then transitioned it into the full band without all the crazy synth and fake beats. 1/5

Only Money: This one is a complete pop track in a Punk Goes Pop album kind of way. The song has a feel-good atmosphere to it and I like the idea of what the lyrics say about homesickness, but the repetitive line “it was only money” is unnecessary. The sound definitely works here, but they could have benefited more from changing up the lyrics. 3/5

Degenerates: This track is a pretty good summary of what the album is actually like and is an accurate reflection of the current state of the band. It has a fun vibe to it, but the chorus is another repetitive chorus and the band is not present in the chorus, either. Not a bad track though. I would play it in a car full of friends on a Friday night. 3/5

Permanent: A synth pop/heavy pop-punk blended track with really strong production. I love the drumming and vocals as well as the transition to the heavy bridge. Might be one of Jeremy’s best tracks to date vocally. This one is a highlight. 5/5

Re-entry: A relatable track about feeling out of sync with the times. This track is very synth-driven, but not in a way that takes away from the band. It works well here. 4/5

Everything We Need: The acoustic intro is wonderful, but the rest of the song has too many layers trying to transition into each other. It’s hard to follow. This one could have benefited by decreasing the amount of layers of artificial noise and smoothing out the transitions between verses. 2/5

As a whole, this album does not feel like a unit, and nor did it make the band progress. I think it could have been kept at the singles and released as an EP. I will give the band props for exploring other territory because I think experimentation is healthy, but in this case, the results of it did not work. It was unfitting and untrue to who they are as artists. Fueled By Ramen could be part of the blame. They have a history of transforming emo bands to “poppier” sounding artists. (Look at Panic! At the Disco for example.) The band’s guitarist, Kevin Skaff, also took to social media last year that a lot of the hold-up on the album was due to issues with mixing. I think that reasoning is valid too, and can be heard in the tracks.

Despite this release coming off weaker than the others, I still have a lot of love for this band and what it was built upon. I mean c’mon, they gave us Homesick!!! Every band has its weaker albums amongst its stronger ones, and maybe there’s a reason for that. Perhaps, it’s to appreciate the others and the times they have gotten us through.

Overall Ranking:

2.7/5 or 5.5/10

No matter what you make of this review, listen as you wish! These are just a collection of my honest first impressions. This album could very much grow on me over time! Thank you for reading!