Wild, Free

Good morning and Happy Monday! Ok, let’s get the elephant-in-the-room out of the way. I missed Music Monday last week. In my defense, last Monday was Memorial Day and my family and I were traveling home from our short vacation. So, if you will, please grant me a mulligan for last week and know, I’m back at it this week with the second installment of the Music Monday series.

I’ve been an Acceptance fan for quite a long time. I can remember as far back to Cornerstone 2000, where Jason Vena and company were plastering the festival site with Acceptance stickers left and right. Backstage during Stavescare’s set, they were even putting stickers on the steps up to the stage! They were relentless and somewhere along the way, their hard work paid big dividends, landing them first, a deal with The Militia Group (RIP) releasing Black Lines to Battlefields (2003), which quickly led to a deal with Columbia Records, where the band release Phantoms (2005). A couple years after the release of Phantoms, the band called it quits.

Thankfully for us fans, this wasn’t the end for the Pacific Northwest power-pop group. In 2017, Acceptance released their album, Colliding by Design on Rise Records which was the perfect sequel to Phantoms. It took the ultra-pop sound of Phantoms and added some polish to it; they were refining their sound even more.

Enter 2020, and the band released Wild, Free on Tooth and Nail Records. I’ve been listening to this record now for about 6 weeks and at to be honest, at first, I didn’t like it nearly as much as Colliding by Design. But it’s grown on me a ton. In fact, it’s very obvious that this is a more mature record for the band. There’s a lot of growth between Colliding and Wild, Free. Their sound is shifting firmly away from the power-pop of Phantoms into a more serious tone and I love it.

My only critique of this record would be that the second half is not nearly as excellent as the first half. The strength of this album is the first 5 songs. Put this on and try your hardest not to sing along to those first 5 songs–IMPOSSIBLE! Once you hit track 6, Bend the Light, you’ve basically hit the sequel to the song Different from Phantoms. The rest is B-sides we won’t get into.

If you’re in the mood for some solid, mature rock-n-roll, this is the album for you. I love it and I’m glad I bought it. Hope you enjoy it too!

And one last thing…wanted to share a funny story about Acceptance. The day before I turned 30, I ended up going to see Acceptance, Copeland, Lovedrug, and The Snake the Cross The Crown. I can vividly remember hanging out on the Acceptance RV after the show, standing next to Jason Vena as he irrigated his sinuses. Nothing says candid-moment like someone with a flood of water coming out of their nostrils. Not a bad way to end my twenties.

Thanks everyone! Be sure to comment with your thoughts/opinions!