Midtown – Forget What You Know

Forget What You Know. Forget everything you think you know about Midtown. Forget their old songs. Forget their old label. Forget all of their drama. Just plain forget. Because if you don’t, then you will be like me, and be really surprised when you get your hands on Midtown‘s third full length, Forget What You Know.

Now, this “surprise” isn’t necessarily bad. But one thing’s for sure, and that is that you won’t be expecting what you hear. In fact, even the biggest Midtown fan may not even like it when they first hear it. But during your second listen, you start to like it a bit more. The third listen, its even better. Then comes the fourth, and you are in love with the album. After a while, you start noticing all the little details that make this album so wonderful. You start to stare in awe at the simple and thought provoking cover and album artwork, the three instrumentals captivate you and propel the album forward, while the mesmerizing vocal harmonies on the other tracks stop you in your own tracks. The lyrics are darker then before, focusing more on death, giving up, and then returning a new.

Their sound has changed quite a lot since Living Well Is The Best Revenge. They have lost a lot of their pop-punk melodies and moved a bit more towards the pop-rock side. But there are still distinct pop-punk in Forget What You Know at key points during the album. They have just progressed, and progressed very nicely. The melodies are spectacular and help every song reach a new height. The only down sides is are the last two songs, Manhattan and So Long AS We Keep Our Bodies Numb We’re Safe, the first of which is a bit too slow and slows the album down a lot. After we get to the second of the two aforementioned, and you think they have picked it up and they do. They play a great song, but then it drags on a bit too long (13 minutes), so that becomes a bit tiresome. Other then those two little blunders at the end of the album, this CD is amazing.

All Canadians had to wait two extra months before we could get our hands on this album legally, without buying it over the Internet. Those two months seemed like eternity. But Forget What You Know was well worth the wait.