Rock band Taking Back Sunday’s “Happiness Is,” is their first effort since 2011, and remains true to the sounds of the group’s earlier releases.

The album opens with an introduction, entitled “Prelude,” consisting of scratched staccato from a distant violin string shrouded in an ambient overdub. The second track, “Flicker, Fade,” enters strongly with loud and driving enthusiasm from the rough-strummed guitar and memorable vocals from singer Adam Lazzara.

Lyrically, “Flicker, Fade” is not as catchy as previous efforts from earlier albums like “Tell All Your Friends” and “Where You Want to Be.” However, it does produce a grittier feel akin to the tracks the album “Louder Now” presented. The song builds and rises into a clamoring crescendo of rock with jutted power chords and reeling-out feedback.

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The next track, “Stood a Chance,” begins with nostalgic sounds of efforts past. The lyricism and vocal style produce a catchy, swaying feel. The song is composed of strong and charismatic vocals, as well as enthusiastic, strongly structured chord progressions.

“All the Way” uses dissonant guitar taps around somber vocals. However, the vocals start to become repetitive, a problem that also plagues “Beat Up Car.” “Car” seems to serve only as another formulaic rock ballad — this does not mean it’s bad, but the song structures are very similar.

The album recovers from the lackadaisical progression with “It Takes More.” The song boasts a relaxed nature, though it attempts an ambitious precision. The song allows the vocals and backing instrumentation to do the majority of the work pushing the album forward.

That said, “They Don’t Have Any Friends” uses this same methodology and still provides memorable melodies. The latter half of the album maintains this progression of hard orchestration and catchy formulations; each song manages to sound different from the last, if only slightly.

It would appear each song does take, a few chances, experimenting with different layering techniques, though these techniques have certainly been procured from the group’s earlier compositions. Each song feels like an individual companion pieces to earlier works, albeit with subtle maturity.

The band once again does not stray far from what has been known to work well in the past. The album swims well enough on the rapidly revolving current of the musical industry, but it remains to be seen if this album will be remembered years down the road.

Jake Saunders can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @saundersfj or by phone at 536-3311 ext. 254.

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