The Loop : Saves the Day - Stay What You Are

Saves the Day - Stay What You Are (2001)

This was one of many bands I discovered through my older brother. Before I had the money or the means to get my own music, my days were spent sneaking into his room and taking his records. I don't really even know what the process was of him introducing these bands to me, maybe just hearing him play it or him deliberately making me sit down to listen to them. I remember distinctly a pop quiz he gave me once before I could take a CD, mostly about Dave Grohl's rotating musician status or which Rage Against the Machine album was featured in the poster on his wall. At any rate, I'm forever indebted to him for my hobby/job/obsession with music.

This album meant a lot to me because of how real it was. Up to this point, my music choices were either Christian ska bands or bands that mostly talked about girls. I realize that if you read through the lyrics of Stay What You Are, you'll find illusions or direct references to girls/relationships, but my fifteen year old self had very little understanding of love. I understood things like loneliness, friendships, figuring out my identity, assuming the role of being a grown up in a few short years, etc., and I feel like this album followed those themes on a more personal, selfish level than others I was listening to. I also appreciated that it didn't isolate it's female listeners, as many emo bands tend to do in this boy's club. They even had a song that was from the point of view, more or less, of a girl struggling with societies standards ("Cars and Calories") .

Aside from it's deeper meanings, this is one smart and catchy record. Songs like "At Your Funeral" "Jukebox" and "Freak" became anthems at the shows and were much easier to sing along to than the more "punk" melodies of Through Being Cool or Can't Slow Down. I know that turned off a lot of fans, but Saves the Day were not only adapting, but setting a bar for a darker tone of emo. I read recently that they were just a few years too early with this record, which I agree with. A the time, fart bands like Blink 182 and Sum 41 were dominating the Warped scene, so for a band to come out with an unapologetically self-depricating record wasn't quite understood in masses. It still exists in a place for a lot of the fans who discovered it then and discovered it now and in my opinoin, despite my love for the completely underrated In Reverie, is still their best record.