In this day and age where album sales are at an industry-low, an album leaking more than a few days prior to release is a major detriment to any band – especially one on an indie label. This is unfortunately where What You Don’t See by The Story So Far finds itself. I’m sure the rampant yet, to an extent, understandable piracy of the band’s sophomore full-length has already cost the TSSF camp a ton of money. The album leaked over a full month prior to its March 26th release date and to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even the final mix of the record. To call this a botched release is an understatement, however the mistakes fortunately seem to stop at the leak.
There’s no denying it, What You Don’t See is a fantastic album. This time around, The Story So Far have paid careful attention to what made their debut full-length Under Soil And Dirt both good and bad. Everything that made their previous album a unanimous success remains and is improved upon meanwhile the faults of it are completely cut out. The only glaring inconsistency in the slew of the near-perfect realization of the band’s sound is that they don’t take many risks, which is where this album falls short of becoming a pop punk masterpiece. Don’t let that sway you, however, because it comes quite close.
You remember what made Under Soil And Dirt one of the best pop punk records of 2011, right? The sing-a-longs, the breakneck pacing, and lyrics that were so undeniably relatable? Well, all those aspects have made a triumphant return in What You Don’t See. Rest assured that this isn’t pure fan service either. Any doubt one might have about the integrity of The Story To Far not redefining their sound entirely will be put to rest during the chorus of Right Here: “All I Really want is to stay right here right now, there’s so much more to talk about”. In fact, this line perfectly sums up the theme of the album because it hints that what the band started on Under Soil And Dirt is not quite finished yet.
Nevertheless, What You Don’t See is the best TSSF album to date. One of the biggest factors contributing to that is the improvement of vocalist Parker Cannon. Gone are the sometimes nasally overtones to his voice and the reliance on one-liners to portray a lot of emotion all at once. The vocal maturation is most present on Small Talk where Parker utilizes a more gritty vocal style on the chorus and crafts one of the catchiest melodies on the album. Other album highlights include the slightly heavier-than-usual riff throughout Face Value and the entirety of Empty Space for how well the music fits with the vocals.
Amongst the slew of positives about this album it becomes hard to nitpick anything negative about The Story So Far’s latest effort. The only thing that may cause a certain type of listener some trouble is that the album is not much of a departure from their previous one. But with a full-length as well crafted as What You Don’t See, that is easily excusable. While it does nothing more than iterate on what they had previously done, TSSF does such a good job at it that it’s very difficult to be a cause of criticism.
Hopefully by the March 26th release date of What You Don’t See by The Story So Far, the music will prove more powerful than the cold-hearted dude who decided to leak the record a month early by selling a good amount of copies. Support is one of the defining aspects of pop punk as a music scene and a way of life, and now is the time to step up and make sure one of our favorite bands doesn’t suffer due to the selfish or foolish actions of one guy. Even though it’s pretty early, I can already tell this album is going to be on a lot of year-end lists. If you enjoy What You Don’t See, make sure you pick up a copy.
Tracklist:
1. Things I Can't Change
2. Stifled
3. Small Talk
4. Playing the Victim
5. Right Here
6. Empty Space
7. The Glass
8. All Wrong
9. Bad Luck
10. Face Value
11. Framework
Rating:
Written by Marc Saggese
