Senses Fail album review: Life Is Not A Waiting Room

Artist: Senses Fail
Album: Life Is Not A Waiting Room
Label: Vagrant Records
Released: October 2008

In the new Senses Fail album, Life Is Not A Waiting Room, lead singer and songwriter Buddy Nielsen spends most of his time apologizing for mistakes and philosophizing the roots of his misguided identity. At times he seems to be making strides towards rejecting his past and starting anew, while at other times he seems to accept his fate to 'die unfulfilled and empty.' If one thing is clear, it's that Senses Fail have a strong poetic ability to fully probe issues of identity, finding happiness, and coping with pain.

The first track is an appropriate introduction, in the mold of Taking Back Sunday's "Ghost Man On Third", that sets the honest, morose tone that will be further explored by the rest of the album. "Garden State" sounds more like Motion City Soundtrack or Coheed and Cambria, and is punctuated by the lyric 'My regrets are what keep me alive/I need to make up for all the lies.'

The next song is the star single on the album, "Family Tradition", with powerful lyrics about fatherly issues, including 'I try to be the one that everybody loves/Where has that gotten me?' and 'My father taught me how to be set free, Give up and run away/I wish I could drain out his half blood in me, But I'd still have his face", ending with "I hope you're proud of me.'

In "Hair of the Dog", a catchy guitar riff echoes to the line 'This is my last goodbye/I've hurt you enough.'

"Four Years" sounds like more recent emo band Paramore, and refers to accepting a failed relationship by saying 'The best gift I could think to give was to set you free.'

"Yellow Angels" begins with a gentle keyboard and guitar intro, expressing identity issues with the lyrics 'I want to know myself so bad it hurts' and 'I'm surprised it's still so hard for me to see that I should start living my life or I will die unfulfilled and empty.'

In "Map The Streets" he expresses a misguided goal that he has apparently reached, but nevertheless doesn't help him achieve what he was striving for when he says 'I always thought I'd be happy if I was loved.'

The final song "Blackout" wraps things up by explaining that while 'I still have some old weight that I've got to shed...before I can find happiness", in the meantime he just wants to 'get some sleep'.

Grade: B+/A-
Sounds Like: Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Paramore, Finch, Motion City Soundtrack, Coheed and Cambria, Chevelle

Listen to tracks on Senses Fail MySpace page
Stream the full album on Ruckus