“Better Now” by The Juliana Theory, Sunday, April 25, 2021

 

Like Further Seems Forever, The Juliana Theory was legendary in the early pop-punk/emo scene. Also like FSF, The Juliana Theory has ties to hardcore. Lead singer Brett Detar started as the guitarist for Christian metal pioneers Zao, however, as he explains on Theory's episode of Labeled, the band was perfectly content listening to Third Eye Blind on the radio in the van while out on tour. When Theory formed, they signed with Tooth & Nail Records but opted not to be marketed to the Christian Rock format. This decision both helped and hurt their career. On the one hand, they toured with other Tooth & Nail artists and performed at Cornerstone, on the other hand, their initial record sales were quite low. There has been much bad blood between the band and the record label, especially when the label made money on selling their song "We're at the Top of the World" (To the Simple Two) to Disney to be featured in a Disney channel original, Motorcrossed, and the band didn't feel fairly compensated. The hit, however, helped the band sign to a major label, but never achieved the commercial success they were chasing. The band broke up in 2006, but in 2020 they released the single "Can't Go Home" and a reimagined album A Dream Away in January of this year.

IT IS GETTING BETTER NOW. Unlike Further Seems Forever, I don't have a deep seated nostalgia for The Juliana Theory. They were a band name I heard, but wasn't actually exposed to their music until college, after the band had broken up. While some of their music was catchy, I felt that their Tooth & Nail predecessors did a better job at what they set out to do: further the emo/pop-punk genre. However, at the beginning of this year when I heard their two new singles "Can't Go Home" and "Better Now," I had found two songs that feel on the level of their predecessors. I think a big factor in this new Juliana Theory is Brett Detar's growth as a musician. After the Juliana Theory's initial run, Detar released two country albums and composed music for films. Rejoining with guitarist Joshua Filedler, the band is now a duo, which seems to be in line with where music is going. Let's hope for more interesting music from The Theory to come.

HOLD ON. As the pandemic presses on, people are spending a lot more time listening to music. What was once something in the background for work and school, more and more people are listening more intently to music, even at home. Emo is making a resurgence, too. It turns out that the same band who helped you through that awful breakup in high school is also there when you got laid off or you were afraid of what's going to happen next. "Better Now" is an inspirational song celebrating the incremental accomplishments a person who is trying to turn their life around makes. The video depicts several three situations in which individuals make a decision to improve their lives from bad situations. From an U.S. Forces veteran who regains his ability to walk, to a drug addict mother who chooses to clean up her life because it's influencing her son, to a mother who chooses to leave an abusive marriage, the message of the video is that change is possible. As the video may be triggering, there are helplines available for various crisis. While the times now may be bleak, music can help us believe that light is around the corner. We just need to hold on a little bit longer.

Read the lyrics on Genius.