Under the Boards (W/Dvd)

Saves the Day | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 30, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vagrant Records
• ASIN: B000W7Y246
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,377 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Cobraside vinyl for the band's latest studio album, second in a trilogy that began with 2005's "Sound The Alarm" and will be completed with yet another new studio album later in the spring of 2008. Hard to believe, but the Chico, CA band will celebrate their tenth anniversary next year! --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth getting..., November 1, 2007

By 

Nicholas B. Sandoval (chicago, il) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Under the Boards (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

If you are or have ever been a fan of Saves the Day, I would recommend their new one. It's a bit more mature than their last effort, "Sound the Alarm". As Songwriter Chris Coneley says, Its some of the hardest and poppiest songs of their career at the same time. Its not as many sing-a-long tracks like some of their older records, but certainly not one to miss. Don't expect "Stay What You Are", expect a good follow-up to "Sound the Alarm", which is apparently the first part in this trilogy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid effort, August 12, 2010

By 

James P "detroit what" (SLC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under the Boards (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

For anybody that remembers Face to Face releasing the album "Ignorance is Bliss" back in 1999, you probably also remember what it felt like to have a band seemingly abandon you by writing completely new material. I hated IiB when it first came out, but I figured it was penned by one of my favorite bands, and I should give it a shot. I made myself sit down and listen to the whole thing two or three times, and by the end of the third go-around I realized that I loved the music, although it had moved past my preferred genre of mid-1990's power-pop-punk (or whatever you want to call it).

I had a lot of the same feelings about Saves the Day's In Reverie. I think, for a lot of us who grew up with Can't Slow Down and Through Being Cool, In Reverie was simply too far outside of the scope of the band at first blush. I had to wait fully a year before the final track of the album, Tomorrow Too Late, sunk in and I realized that I had been missing out on some great music because it wasn't what I had been expecting.

So, with that in mind, I've kept my mouth shut about this album for around three years while I've been making up my mind.

First off: the album is good. It's not StD's best effort; Conley's eternal melodrama is wearing a bit thin, although his imagery and lyricism remains as brilliant as ever. The musicianship is what stands out most here. Picking up Glassjaw's rhythm section didn't hurt the group at all, and the bass lines work seamlessly with the drumming throughout. Most of the songs are well-crafted, with a few standout disappointments (Woe being the best example of the filler material required when writing album trilogies).

Second: possibly the best part about being a Saves the Day fan is seeing them live. A lot of bands that sound great in the studio sound terrible on stage. Fortunately, StD isn't one of them. For Under the Boards, the songwriting is tailored much more towards being reproduction live without problems. It's always frustrated me to see Conley start off songs like Rocks Tonic Juice Magic at a concert, and know (via experience) that the layered coda of the song will be missing the harmonized second melody. Under the Boards doesn't suffer from this problem, as there is virtually no vocal harmony anywhere on the album. There are a couple of quick thirds here and there, but nothing approaching the Lifetime/Bad Religion influences of the band's first two albums.

Finally, and this is geared more towards the other reviews on here, I don't understand people saying that they loved Through Being Cool but hated Sound the Alarm. StA remains, in my opinion, the best Saves the Day album produced since Through Being Cool, and that is precisely because it's fast and aggressive. As much as Conley has distanced himself from his New Jersey/punk/Lifetime roots, it's still his best music, and it showed through on Sound the Alarm. But Sound the Alarm this album is not, and it doesn't need to apologize for it. The hooks are there, the landscape of Conley's f*****-up brain is vividly present, and (to be blunt) the album rocks. And this album is not In Reverie, either. Much like In Reverie was a hard swing to (effectively) art rock after Stay What You Are's catchy pop, Under the Boards is moves away from Sound the Alarm. Those kind of perpendicular moves are difficult to handle, even after a band like StD has done it a few times.

To tie back into my opening line, after touring with Trever Keith and his gang, Chris Conley said in an interview that Saves the Day "is not Face to Face." What he meant was that he didn't want to write the same album over and over. While I disagree that Face to Face did that (see Ignorance is Bliss as the strongest evidence), Conley's point makes sense. Nobody wants to get stale, but you can't piss off your fan base too much either. Under the Boards is a good example at balancing Saves the Day's past and future. It doesn't sound quite like any of their other albums, but it's not completely alien.

And, in the meantime, the music is only a few clicks away from achieving greatness. Something tells me I'm not going to need to wait three years to make up my mind when Daybreak comes out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Album, June 22, 2008

By 

T M Flores (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under the Boards (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

Many Saves the Day detractors have complained about this band ever since In Reverie (which was a great album in my opinion) was released, and is completely unjustified. StD remains one of the best bands out there because they are a not a static group of musicians; each album they make is unique. Discontent with simply releasing music that is the same as past efforts, StD evolves with each release and with Under the Boards has created their strongest album since Stay What You Are.

Under the Boards starts off with the title song and sets the theme for the album with its dark mood. "Radio" follows and continues the atmosphere, albeit with more pop than the heavy "Under the Boards". "Can't Stay the Same" could easily be a hit single on the radio; it is incredibly catchy. However, the song stands out slightly from the rest of the album because of how poppy it is. Saves the Day returns to the darker theme with "When I'm Not There". "Lonely Nights" is a nice deviation with the piano. It starts off as a ballad of sorts, and then kicks into a heavier rock, which really makes this song exceptional. By far the most pop influenced song, "Bye Bye Baby" breaks up the melodrama that would've occurred and dragged the album if "Stay" had followed "Lonely Nights". Following all the pop and slow acoustic, "Getaway" marks the final part of Under the Boards, which is much heavier rock that harkens back to Can't Slow Down. Some songs like "Kaleidoscope" and "Woe" are even harder than Sound The Alarm. The album finishes with "Turning Over in My Tomb" which completes the theme Saves the Day set out to create. It almost feels like it could be the second half of "Under the Boards".

This really is a great album, and the atmosphere that permeates throughout is exemplified by the album art. Taking a drive at night is perfectly complemented by a listen of Under the Boards. Almost any fan can find a song to like on this album, as the songs are varied and distinct; this isn't an album you play, and later you realize that the song you were listening to was over ten minutes ago.