Where You Want to Be

Where You Want to Be is the second studio album by American rock band Taking Back Sunday, released in July 17, 2004 by Victory Records. The title comes from a line in the opening track, "Set Phasers to Stun." Dismissive of several early songs, they wanted to "grow musically with this [new album]." and spent most of the year and 2003 touring. it ended up spending 68 weeks the Heatseekers Albums chart (eventually peaking at number 9), and 78 weeks on the Independent Albums chart (peaking at number 8). Despite little airplay, the album had sold 110,000 copies by early 2003. In September 2002, the band went on tour; on this stint, vocalist Adam Lazzara fell off the stage and gashed his face in two places, in addition to dislocating his hip. Though the incident forced the group to drop off the tour, they spent the downtime working on new material. In April 2003, Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper left the band and later formed Straylight Run. Despite initially citing exhaustion from touring as the reason for his departure, Nolan later revealed his reasons for leaving included constant fighting within the group, as well as his deteriorating friendship with Lazzara.

A short period of uncertainty followed, Bassist Matt Rubano, who grew up with drummer Mark O'Connell, then joined the group. They joined just in time for the band's fall 2003 tour. according to Rubano, the group had "about 45 minutes to rest" before starting work on Where You Want to Be. They made demos for every song that would later feature on the album and altered them appropriately. Despite an MTV report that the band was recording in January 2004, recording for Where You Want to Be did not begin until March 1. the band worked with Lou Giordano. Two weeks of recording were done at Mission Sound in Brooklyn, New York, with Giordano assisted by Oliver Strauss and Barbra Vlahides. Stuart Karmatz was a technician, and Todd Parker the engineer. Conductor Ray Zu-Artez (who played piano)

Composition

Musically, Where You Want to Be has been classed as pop-punk Additionally, some associate it with scene music. According to MTV, the album was "driven by punchy, melodic hardcore riffs and yearning vocals" similar to releases by the Movielife and Lifetime, with the band "expand[ing] its musical boundaries and tak[ing] some chances." Mascherino wanted to retain the same level of energy and mood that is present on Tell All Your Friends. He added that they made "a better sounding" album due to having more time to record it. the track, along with "A Decade Under the Influence", started out as riffs by Reyes that he brought in and jammed out with the rest of the band. Its title came from a friend of the band; the group was playing demos for the friend, and during one section of a song the friend exclaimed: "Whoa, that's a bonus mosh part two, man, that's cool." Reyes said he had the track's riff for a number of years, and thought it was in the vein of "1979" (1996) by the Smashing Pumpkins. It was one of the last tracks written while Nolan and Cooper were still in the group. The members called a truce on it, since O'Connell had worked on some Straylight Run tracks, with Nolan and Cooper letting Taking Back Sunday keep "...Slowdance on the Inside".

Release

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On April 9, 2004, Where You Want to Be was announced. A week later the band headlined the Skate and Surf Festival, and supported Blink-182 and Cypress Hill in May. Also in May, a music video directed by Adam Levite was filmed for "A Decade Under the Influence." In the video, the band is in circles in a warehouse. Remote-control monster trucks with cameras were placed on tracks on the circles; according to Lazzara, "it made everything look really sweet." A CD single of the song was released, with Mike Sapone-produced demos of "Little Devotional" and "A Decade Under the Influence" and "A Decade Under the Influences music video. The group toured the UK with the Hurt Process and Recover, including a date at Download Festival. From June to August, they were part of the 2004 Warped Tour. Where You Want to Be was made available for streaming via MTV on July 22, and it was released on July 27 The album's artwork was done by Brad Flip; Reyes proposed that Flip had the concept of "the band starting over again". A sign includes the words "Next Exit, 152 Miles", alluding to a gas station Lazzara and his friends would stop at Exit 152 off Interstate 40 in Mebane, North Carolina; Lazzara's father also lived near this area. supported by Fall Out Boy, Matchbook Romance and Funeral for a Friend. During the tour, the band filmed a video for "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" with Blink-182's Tom DeLonge. Over a 48-hour period, they flew from Dallas to Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee to film the video. According to MTV, Taking Back Sunday posted on its website that DeLonge had "a great visual concept and was a very enthusiastic, focused and attentive first-time director." In November, the band began a tour with Atreyu and Funeral for a Friend. In early December, the band performed at Q101 Chicago's Xmas festival. "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" was released as a radio single on January 11, 2005. In May, a music video for "Set Phasers to Stun" featured the Hungarian dance group Troup de Pozolo de Zav. Victory Records was uncertain whether to make the video an internet-only release or send it to MTV, and on May 11 it was posted on Yahoo! Launch. On June 16, a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the "Set Phasers to Stun" video was posted online.

Critical reception

According to AllMusic reviewer Heather Phares, Taking Back Sunday "sometimes comes off as less than distinctive, and the album can sound like a generic soundtrack to generic teenage angst." Although Drowned in Sound writer Mat Hocking expected the album to be one of the "grittiest, most emotionally driving punk-pop records of the year," it turned out to be "an album that's playing it far too safe: melodies rise and fall, soaring and curving with painful predictability." Although, "unadventurous as it is, the melodies remain catchy and the riffs remain driving." Citing "New American Classic" and "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)," Greenwald noted Adam Lazzara's use of "anthemic choruses like 15-year-olds use emoticons: as sweeping shorthand placeholders for feelings too complicated to puzzle out and express." and remaining on the chart for 19 weeks. The album topped the Independent Albums chart, remaining on the chart for 50 weeks, and number 70 on the UK Singles Chart. By the end of 2004, album sales stood at 458,000 copies. As a result of this success, the group signed to Warner Bros. in the same month. Taking Back Sunday was the first Victory Records band with a gold album; By September, 667,000 copies had been sold; in early 2006 album sales stood at 700,000 copies.

Legacy

In 2005, JJ Koczan of The Aquarian Weekly wrote that Where You Want to Be might "perhaps go down in pop culture history as the record that broke the emo scene commercially." Six tracks from the album were included on the 2007 Notes from the Past compilation. In 2014, Alternative Press Brian Kraus wrote that it was "the closest they've come to the elusive 'perfect album. Calling it "catchy" in comparison to Tell All Your Friends, the album "matured the words past freshman year and flexed the rhythm guitar to a new level." In 2016, Fuse.tv ranked Where You Want to Be its number-one Taking Back Sunday album. According to Jason Lipshutz, the album "still smacks harder" than the band's other releases due to "a masterful sequencing, tighter hooks and most transcendent single ("A Decade Under The Influence")."

Throughout 2019, Taking Back Sunday performed Where You Want to Be in its entirety for their 20th anniversary world tour. For cities in the US that had two shows back-to-back, the band would flip a coin to play either Where You Want to Be or Louder Now (2006) on the first night and the other album on the second night. To help promote the tour, a career-spanning compilation Twenty (2019) was released, which included "A Decade Under the Influence", "Set Phasers to Stun" and "One-Eighty by Summer" from Where You Want to Be. "A Decade Under the Influence" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture. The album was an influence on As It Is as frontman Patty Walters explained: "Everything that our band knows - the riffs, the lyrics, the mic swings - we learned it all from Taking Back Sunday".

Track listing

Track listing per booklet.

Taking Back Sunday

Adam Lazzara – lead vocals
Fred Mascherino – lead guitar, vocals
Eddie Reyes – rhythm guitar
Matt Rubano – bass guitar
Mark O'Connell – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

Mike Sapone – programming
Roy Zu-Arets – string arrangement, conductor, piano
Girl Next Door String Quartet – strings
Neil Rubenstein – vocals
Nick Torres – vocals

Production

Lou Giordano – producer, mixing
Oliver Strauss – assistance
Barbra Vlahides – assistance
Todd Parker – engineer, mixing
Stuart Karmatz – technician
Ted Young – mixing
Ted Jensen – mastering
Brad Filip – layout, artwork

Chart positions

Album

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (2004)

! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position

!scope="row" | UK Albums Chart

| 71

!scope="row" | US Billboard 200

| 3

!scope="row" | US Billboard Independent Albums

| 1

Year-end charts