Bayside - Shudder

Hands down, the best album of 2008. If you've been paying attention to Bayside and its seamless transitions from record to record, you'll be able to appreciate this album as the next appropriate step— which is always and only the first step to a great album. Next is to actually play the part of being matured from your last effort. The Long Island natives have produced the absolute perfect followup to last year's amazing "Walking Wounded". Coming a long way as songwriters and musicians, Shudder boasts some very throughtful lyrics and instrumentation as heard on songs like "Moceanu", "I Think I'll Be OK", and "I Can't Go On".
Bayside also touts their ability to write a catchy and upbeat pop song from here and there with their single, "No One Understands".
The most appropriate thing about the record has to be the bits and pieces that you can hear of Bayside's past. The straightforward tracks like "The Ghost of St. Valentine", "What and What Not", and "Have Fun Storming the Castle" ring true to the qualities that many fans heard when they first fell in love with this Gold Record selling group that has persevered through the tragedy and heartache of losing a fellow bandmater and friend John "Beatz" Hoolahan to a fatal van accident in October of 2005.
The disc also accommodates an obscure ode to aviator, industrialist, and film maker Howard Hughes titled "Howard" with lyrics like, "Howard you're a ten but, I'm not sure this ends well."

I give this album an absolutely solid rating of 9.3 out of 10.

Bayside's "Shudder" is out everywhere on Victory Records Tuesday, September 30th, 2008.