Saves The Day – 9

Saves The Day left an undeniable mark on the emo scene during the early 2000’s.  They rose through the ranks to MTV and Hot Topic notoriety with relative ease, popularizing the angsty genre on the road along with Taking Back Sunday and Senses Fail, becoming a staple on the Vans Warped Tour, and reaching a commercial peak with their biggest hit, Stay What You Are.  It goes without saying, sole original member, Chris Conley, has something to be proud of.  Approaching the anniversary of Saves The Day’s twentieth year and ninth studio album, the band opted to celebrate their achievements by making their early rise the topic of their latest disc, 9.

As with many retrospectives, 9 has been taking a lot of flack for how Saves The Day projects the memory of their legacy.  Some have been accusing Conley of writing a revisionist history of the band’s early years, downplaying the emotional frailty and uncertainty that comes with forming a new band, and how that vulnerability translated to the genuine authenticity that caught the ear of early fans.  If viewed this way, then 9 fails to catalogue the history and sound of early Saves The Day.  But these criticisms seem to miss the point.  9 isn’t intended to be an accurate historical document.  If you’re looking for that, check out Wikipedia, band bios, and interviews for the text, and simply dive back into the band’s original three albums to hear what Saves The Day sounded like in the throws of youth.  

Instead, the band produces a present day celebration from the perspective of knowing that success and record label ascent was a sure thing.  9 remembers all the high points of nostalgia, unapologetically reliving events of the past from a presentist lens.  This is where the band has come under fire. But it’s going to be entirely a matter of taste. Songs like eponymous opener “Saves The Day” indulge listeners by speaking straight a their younger, angstier selves with the assumption that they have also successfully grown into adulthood. “Oh yeah we’re writing a record oh yeah you’re gonna love it,” sings Conley, next proclaiming that, “you’ll know it forward and backward, we’ll get it stuck in your head every day on your way to work …  turn it up we’re Saves The Day.” Memory of life on the road and back stage abounds on “Kerouac & Cassady,” forming of the band in “Side By Side,” and their first big breakthrough in “1997.” The bulk of these stories have been penned from a predominantly rock n’ roll perspective, so depending on preferences, fans will either welcome the simplicity that comes with memory, or scorn the lack of emotive range and texture inherent in their seminal works.  It’s not surprising that 9 is a divisive album.

But where fans and critics seem to align is the final track, “29,” which runs well over 20 minutes and feels like a stand alone themed EP more than a closing track.  Its themes are complex, the instrumentation is varied as the tempo fluctuates ever every few minutes. The band honestly could have reduced the entire album to a single continuous twenty minute EP and would have received critical acclaim.  “29” serves as a grand finale that ranks up with the best of Saves The Day’s library.

Overall, 9 has probably received more than its fair share of criticism for what it isn’t, rather than what it is.  It’s always a challenge to divorce expectations from a long running band, especially when the band has a legacy of which fans hold the group accountable.  Is 9 a mixed bag?  Probably. But did it hamper my enjoyment overall?  Not really. Saves The Day may have taken a simpler, poppier approach to their retrospective, but 9 is still a solid example of why Saves The Day remains active in today’s scene.