“Retrace” by Anberlin, Friday, June 25, 2021

Anberlin headlined a night at Cornerstone in 2007 and 2008, though 2007 was thanks to a bus fire for the boys of Relient K. Their set was a celebration of the band’s fan favorite Cities. By the summer of 2008, though, the band had already recorded and was set to release their major label follow up, New Surrender, on September 30th. The band played two songs from the upcoming album: “Breaking” and their re-recorded classic “Feel Good Drag.” They sold pre-orders at their summer shows, a brown usb bracelet with a special code that, when entered, the album could be downloaded on September 30th along with  four electronic mixes of songs from Cities and New Surrender on the usb to tie fans over until then. Anberlin’s major label debut sold well, but some fans thought the band had gone too soft. Others criticized how much of a rollercoaster the track listing was. New Surrender was certainly a different Anberlin album. After three records working with Aaron Sprinkle, the band worked with pop and rock producer Neal Avron. “The guitarist who can’t be tamed” Joseph Milligan is tempered by the mixing and the addition on rhythm guitarist Christian McAlhaney. And the classic Anberlin emo song titles were changed to more generic ones. For example, “Bittersweet Memory” becomes “Breaking” and “Still Counting Backwards” becomes “Retrace.”

IT TAKES ME RIGHT BACK WHEN YOU COME BACK AROUND. New Surrender opens with the kick-ass Rise Against style “The Resistance” then moves into "Breaking," in which the drums might be a just a hair too much for a Top 40 radio song. Then to sleeper track “Blame Me! Blame Me!” At this point literally anything could come next. Another pop song, this time sounding the most Taylor Swift of all Anberlin songs: ”Retrace” is a nostalgic track about lost love in summer and watching the stars fall. But make sure you’re holding onto your sweet tea because the listener is about to be hit by a truck with track five, their re-recorded hit “Feel Good Drag.” Today we focus on “that last summer night,” and the fall that followed it. New Surrender’s release coincided with my first semester Missions College in Tennessee. I had completed two years of college living at home, but in the fall of 2008 I was starting over again like an older freshman. It was another one of my reset buttons. I left behind friends who liked a lot of the same kinds of Tooth & Nail music and who traveled up to Cornerstone every year. I was now around new people, people who were into different things. I’ve talked about how college added to my musical tastes. What was similar, though, was both back home and throughout my time at Mission College, I never became close with anyone who loved Anberlin. I had this fantasy that I would meet a girl who was also an Anberlin fanatic, and we’d get married and sing “Inevitable” to each other and name our first daughter “Adelaide.” I’m sure this has happened to someone; however, I always got a little freaked out by people who liked the band as much as I did.

EVERY SUBTLE THING SCREAMS YOUR NAME. New Surrender found me in the middle of quite the adjustment to last-minute term papers, instant coffee because the nearest coffee shop was at least 30 minutes away from the most conservative Adventist University that was accredited. I was making new friends of different majors, though, most of them would be in education, English, or communications. I had arrived on campus and attended all of the orientation stuff that didn't feel too awkward to be at with the freshmen. I met all my English professors and a few freshmen English majors. There were more girls than boys. The boys were either teacher track or hipster playwright track. There was one girl I found pretty fascinating. Let's call her Lois. We talked about our experiences. She was from Orlando and was trying out the English major thing because she wanted to write for magazines. I said that I wanted to be a teacher. We chatted a bit about books, and then the orientation ended. We kept bumping into each other and having brief conversations, but she seemed to always be in a rush. On Saturday night there was a welcome back party--'90s themed. Not knowing anyone, I wore my Anberlin Cities shirt and hoped to meet someone with the same obsession. Maybe a girl would know who Anberlin was would talk to me. Maybe it would be Lois. I walked into the party. There was a girl struggling to sing karaoke to Third Eye Blind's "Semi- Charmed Life." There was a Lego building station. There was a Nintendo 64 competition off in another corner. I bumped into a few people I had met and said hi, but everyone seemed to have their own group. Then I saw Lois. She said hi to me. She was with a guy who had hair cut military length and was thin, but had broad shoulders. "Hi, Allan, you should meet my friend from school. He's a few years older than me. He's a transfer student too." "Hi, I'm Allan." "Hi, I'm James. James Reagan." "Like the president?"

P.S. Dan Wilson, a writer on this song also wrote for a number of artists including Semisonic, The Chicks, Shawn Mendes, Adele, and yes, Taylor Swift.

https://genius.com/Anberlin-retrace-lyrics