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Artist: Saves The Day

Album: Stay What You Are

Release Date: July 10, 2001

This is my first post where I’m doing a re-review of an album which, I feel, has held up well over the years. I’ve mentioned doing this in an earlier post and chose this album to start this series off. When this album came out, it polarized a lot of their existing fans. Through Being Cool was a lot harder and more upbeat than this one, but that doesn’t mean this album is slow and boring. I have more respect for bands/artists who experiment with different styles and musical influences. It’s real easy to write songs that are about the same subject matter, just change a few arrangements, release the album and call it a day. It’s not so easy to try out new ideas and have your fans like what you release. I feel the band successfully changed their sound with this album while keeping their old fans and gaining new ones.

Stay What You Are is widely considered Saves The Day’s breakout album. They got some radio play with their first single “At Your Funeral”. While it’s a great song, the rest of the album deserves recognition. Their second single, “Freakish”, also got some airplay but isn’t one of my favorites. “Nightingale” is a hidden gem on this album. It’s a hopeful song that can be looked at on different levels. I’m sure everyone can relate to this one line in the song, “I’ll do everything I can, to keep you by my side.”

“This Is Not An Exit” is probably one of my top 3 favorite songs of all time. It has all the criteria that, for me, make a song great; a catchy melody and thoughtful lyrics that anyone who’s been in a relationship can relate to. The last verse of the song best describes the most hopeful and bittersweet way anyone would want a relationship to end.

…the actor in this play.
And you walk across the stage,
Take a bow, hear the applause,
And as the curtain falls,
Just know you did it all
The best that you knew how
And you can hear them cheering now.
So let a smile out and show your teeth
cause you know you lived it well.

Stand Out Tracks: At Your Funeral, Nightingale, This Is Not An Exit (iTunes links)

Enjoyed Best: While driving by yourself on a summer Sunday afternoon.

As a fun little experiment, I posted a 3 hour time lapse video of me applying the stickers. Enjoy.

Conan O’Brien gave the commencement speech in 2000 at his alma mater, Harvard. The quality of the video isn’t great, but he talks about his years at Harvard, his early years in LA and gives the graduates overall great advice.

And this 3rd clip shows Conan backstage during a show rehearsal. It looks like they’re in between segments and it seems like they’re going over some bit they plan to do on a show but I don’t know if he knows he’s being filmed. I like this clip because it shows Conan in a natural setting. Enjoy.

The earliest we’ll see him back is September of 2010. As a fan of his since The Simpsons, I can’t wait.

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