“‘Tidal Wave’ is a bit of a departure, but I don’t think it’s coming out of left field,” says Taking Back Sunday frontman Adam Lazzara about the forthcoming album. “We realize anything we do is going to sound like Taking Back Sunday.” Theirs is an ‘Americana’ inspiration, drawing from sources like Tom Petty and Bryan Adams.

“Even throughout each song on the record there are a lot of references to water,” said Lazzara. “That’s why it seems like that title kept poking its neck out.”

‘Tidal Wave’, Taking Back Sunday’s seventh album, was recorded in Michigan and Charlotte, North Carolina (where Lazzara and guitarist John Nolan reside). Lazzara adds that the album was written in between tours during the ‘Happiness Is Cycle’, the band’s release from 2014.

Asked whether ‘Tidal Wave’ will be ‘emo’, Lazzara said “Look, in my mind every album anyone’s ever written is an emo album because there’s a lot of emotion that goes into all of that. You can’t listen to ‘Hey Jude’ and tell me that’s not an emo song. I don’t like being pigeonholed because I think there’s more to it than that. I think this record highlights that very well, so no I wouldn’t consider it an emo record in the traditional sense of the word […] With our first records, we’re writing from the perspective of 17, 18-year-old kids and now it’s like as you grow older the blinders get pulled back and you have a different way of looking at the world around you,” Lazzara adds.

For fans of Brand New, The Used, Dashboard Confessional.