Nostalgia resuscitated

Time Spent Driving - "Estrangers"
Label: Negative Progression

Ah, TIME SPENT DRIVING. Reading the name of this band alone is pure nostalgia for my soul. While the guys from California were never as popular or considered as important as SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, MINERAL and JIMMY EAT WORLD, they were among the first Emo-bands I discovered back in 2001. Their freshly released "Walls between us" immediately struck with me and I'd still consider it a classic of this period of Indie-/Midwest-Emo.

Reforming in 2012, TIME SPENT DRIVING put out an album in 2015, which I slept on, but they once again caught my attention in the current decade. They opted for a strange approach with their third studio album "Estrangers" and released the first half of it as an EP, back in 2020. Now, the whole album came out a few weeks back. Personally I decided to ignore "Estrangers Vol. 1", to get the impression of the full record. So these ten songs were all new to me. And I gotta say, TIME SPENT DRIVING once again won me over after a long pause between the two of us.

Surely, the four-piece left their rough characteristics back in the early 2000s and is now circling between Indie, Midwest-Emo and Alternative Rock. To be fair, they always felt more comfortable close to the Alt-Rock-tinged Emo as opposed to the 90s-styled. However, "Estrangers" is no borefest. There are still enough edges there and the overall tone is pretty similar to what they did in their early days. Just more grown up, you know? It's a credible and very well done evolution. They stayed true to themselves, while turning on a few screws, to write a perfectly balanced album. There's nothing that really stands out, as the quality is high from start to finish. Though I gotta point out, that they get even more into it in the second half of the record and that's something I truly appreciate for a change. This second half isn't "Vol. 2" of the LP however, as they reworked the tracklist. I especially love "Deep Blue", with its crushing guitars that somehow harken back to the "Walls between us"-days and for sure the beautifully "False Fluff". And damn, here's where they fucked up, cause how can you not make this song the closer of your record? "False Fluff" is one of the best closers in years that ultimately... isn't a closer.

Another thing I appreciate -besides Jon's lovely voice- are the lyrics. They're exremely down to earth, calm, free of gimmicks and just believable and taken from life. Songs about relationships, feelings, love and life. Nothing new, ey?! Yep, yet pretty effective and with lots of memorable lines too.

So, where's my perfect closing line now? Let's keep it generic there: It feels good listening once again to the music of these legends, 23 years after getting to know them. Reading that name alone takes me back to those days: TIME SPENT DRIVING.

Stream on Negative Progression's Bandcamp
TIME SPENT DRIVING on Bandcamp
TIME SPENT DRIVING on Instagram