September 27th, 2013 
Drew Caruso 
Artist: Saves The Day
Album: Saves The Day
Genre: Pop Punk
Label: Equal Vision Records
Proteins are puzzles, massive collections of molecules and amino acids, chained together to create specific functions throughout our bodies. What is most interesting about these proteins is the way in which they are ordered together, and how influential that is on the resulting product. If something is say, out of order, or structurally different from what it once was before, the result is something completely different from when it started, possibly even catastrophic. If we are to take a specific formula of molecules, and re-arrange them in different ways, we would find different products, though all made of the same materials.
Saves The Day have mostly held the same ingredients for the past few years now, though with their newest work they are rearranging their key components to create a product that is entirely new, fresh, fun, and most certainly welcomed. The penultimate self-titled record, usually when used as an album title later in a band’s career, is meant as a statement of reinvention. Saves The Day is a colossal collection of alt-pop jams that will prove difficult to escape your thoughts while traversing into this exciting, fast coming, fall season.
Saves The Day is short, only coming in at a little over thirty minutes; the album is quick and sweet, though at times tiresome. Although the work does seem to drag at times, each song is executed so well that it really comes down to any specific bias you have towards one song versus another. I, for one, must listen to “Remember,” “In the in Between,” “Xenophobic Blind Left Hook,” “Supernova,” and “Ring Pop” anytime I listen to the record, with no skipping through my personalized favorites. The others are seemingly dependent on my mood and current state of mind. The chorus of “Xenophobic Blind Left Hook” will put me in a good mood no matter what the situation, and try to not bounce around when listening to it, I dare you.
Saves The Day could be the soundtrack to your fall semester, your commute home, and even to a first date. Listening to opener “Remember” instills such a montage of freedom, carefree relaxation, and adventure in my mind; it expresses itself as purity. “I remember doing nothing at all, waking up with you and no where to go, I remember when we used to say, blow it off let’s stay here just for the day.” Such lines ingrain a massively nostalgic, emotive mindset, bringing me back to my late years in high school. It even supports a notion of fulfillment, or satisfaction up to this point in my life, that somehow, strangely, it is letting me know that everything is okay, to just enjoy. Now, this may be some sort of subconscious window into my mind, but I truly believe that these songs at the right moment, can hit you the same way. Whether it is the solo in “Ring Pop,” or the infectious, storyteller chorus of “Supernova,” the album is a calming reassurance of the human condition, presented in a catalogue of pop.
Chris Conley has been through a lot in his time in the scene, but with Saves The Day, it really feels like he is starting to have a good time. Along with Arun Bali, Rodrigo Palma, and Dennis Wilson, the band has created a piece of art that rebrands the band’s accessibility, and provides a pure, youthful, listenership that has been absent from recent releases. Sit back, relax, and let Saves The Day take you somewhere.
“7 years will go by in a blink of an eye, suddenly here we are, thinking what are the odds.”
SCORE: 8/10
Review Written by Andrew Caruso — Follow him on Twitter
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