-Take Back Thursday- The Front Bottoms: Talon of the Hawk

In February of 2016, Brick + Mortar, one of my favorite bands in adolescence (and still now), announced they would be going on tour with Diet Cig opening for The Front Bottoms. Seeing that they were opening the tour in Buffalo, New York, my hometown, little 14-year-old me bought my very own concert tickets for the first time. 

I hadn’t listened to The Front Bottoms before this point. I’d heard the name because it was 2016 and the music that I was a fan of definitely had some overlap with TFB’s sound and fanbase, but it was never enough to convince me to actually listen to them until I bought the tickets to this concert. My thought process was I needed to know at least some of the headliner's music before I ended up at their show, so I started listening to them. 

When I eventually caved and started listening to The Front Bottoms, it seemed like I kept returning to one of their albums, Talon of the Hawk. This year, Talon of the Hawk turns ten years old. The band is celebrating this milestone by going on an anniversary tour and releasing a new pressing of the album onto vinyl, which they just announced yesterday morning, and I am celebrating by revisiting what has become one of the most formative albums I have ever heard.

Talon of the Hawk is the (official) sophomore album from New Jersey’s finest, The Front Bottoms. Released in 2013, this twelve-track LP pushed the band into a more mainstream direction and even garnered them a position on the Billboard charts (peaking at 30 for US Indie). The first track on the album is “Au Revoir (Adios)”. It’s catchy, it’s got some attitude, and it’s quite a way to open an album. Immediately, you understand what you’re going to get with The Front Bottoms—a little whiny, possibly annoying, but certainly lovable and impressive in a peculiar way.

This goes into “Skeleton” which has been very high up in my rankings for the longest time. This track has unmatched energy and, I feel, it is a very authentic representation of the rest of TFB’s discography. With lyrics that build parallel to growing instrumentals with the incredibly genuine bridge “Come on, baby, calm me down / You’re the only one who knows how / I got miles to go 'til I ever get home / But the sound of your laugh and your voice on the phone / Makes me feel like I am already there”, it really is no wonder how I fell in love with this track and entire album and the entire band’s discography. “Swear To God The Devil Made Me Do It” is the precursor to the most widespread, popular song from the band, so it definitely gets overlooked a bit, but it definitely has something special. There is a clear desire exhibited on this track by lyricist and frontman Brian Sella to create a legacy—lyrics like “I just want this to mean something to anyone, even if they don't know who I am” solidify the legacy of the band’s fabled lyricism. 

The fourth track on this album could be analyzed from a social science perspective, and the research would show that Sella far outgrew the footprint he strived for in the previous track. I think it goes without saying, but “Twin Size Mattress” is one of the most notorious songs when it comes to pop punk. It has been taken in by vast audiences and made to be their own, and everyone who listens to it will inevitably find a lyric to latch onto and never let go of. I might even go as far as saying that it is a perfect song. Sometimes the 130 million streams on a song can really indicate that it is a good song, and in this case, it does. “Twin Size Mattress” opens with acoustic guitar and Sella’s unique vocals (that nobody can truly replicate no matter how hard they try…I’m looking at you, McCafferty). The track gains layers and complexity that percussion and intensity in the instrumentation contribute, and vocally, there is a strength and emotion that is really hard to come by in any genre. It’s the type of song that once you hear it, you’ll never forget it. 

Then, the cutesy little love song, “Peach”. It is probably my least favorite song in TFB’s entire discography, yet I still catch myself adding it to playlists and jamming out to it every once in a while because sometimes it just works. It’s still a good song, but following “Twin Size Mattress” would be difficult no matter what so it just falls a little short of that sensation. “Santa Monica” comes in next and is somehow the first track on this album that uses any horns. The Front Bottoms take horn players on tour with them, which just illustrates that they use horns frequently enough to warrant bringing another musician on the road with them, yet miraculously it took until the halfway mark on this album before they utilized any trumpets on Talon of the Hawk. “The Feud” is next and represents a uniquely energetic sound from the band. It’s hard, from my perspective, to argue that there is any kind of a lull on this record. It’s the first album that I chose to talk about for our Take Back Thursday series, so obviously, it holds a special place in my heart. That being said, this song…exists. I like it, but there isn’t much to be said about it. “Funny You Should Ask” is the eighth track on Talon of the Hawk. Maybe it’s just because it’s so bright, catchy, and quotable, but it really is another standout for me. Sometimes the pessimism of heartbreak can be unbearable and exhausting, but there’s something about Sella singing about an ex on this track that makes it uniquely listenable. The next song, “Tattooed Tears”, is more like a poem. I don’t think it’s the best-sounding song in TFB’s catalog, but it houses possibly the most resonant lyrics. If there is something that this band does well, it’s writing a bridge that will encourage any audience member, regardless of lived experience, scream along to. This song does that on a new level. I love it. 

The tenth track on the album, “Lone Star”, has lyrics that are really strong and evoke a lot of visuals and emotions, which is done pretty well. This is another lower point in the album in my opinion, though generally this track is fairly reasonably loved by fans of the band. But it accomplishes something really interesting. Sella tells a story in this song that feels like a first-hand account, especially given the fact that he “quotes” someone referring to him by name, however, it is reportedly not about his own life. Still, interesting.

“Backflip” is the penultimate song on this album. It’s another super fun song, that, to me, sounds like how being in college feels. I don’t know if it’s the references to the stick-and-poke tattooing or improperly smoking weed or just the general sense of anxiety Sella radiates on this track that elicits that imagery, but it’s there. And that leads us to “Everything I Own”, which I think is the perfect way to close this album. It brings in a final burst of energy and a little bit of wisdom that might feel unexpected given the themes of uncertainty and wallowing that are woven throughout the album. Those themes are not absent from this song, but they’re counteracted by some well-thought-out self-awareness and visible reflection. 

I love this album. I love the lyrics, I love the instrumentation, I love how whiney Sella is, and I love (but also hate) how relatable some of the whining is. Maybe we’re both just Geminis. Maybe he’s speaking directly to me. Maybe Brian Sella just knows how to write a song. Who knows! Despite TFB’s sound changing and veering off of this path that I discovered them on, I genuinely feel that this album has stood the test of time. It is absolutely a staple in the genre at this point. I cannot imagine a world without Talon of the Hawk, and I cannot wait to see what The Front Bottoms do on this ten-year anniversary tour.