The Wonder Years released a new song called “Dismantling Summer” and it’s freakin’ awesome. Everything about it is phenomenal; they’d kind of lost momentum recently and I lost interest, too. For some reason, they didn’t feel like classic TWY until now.
The opening line, “Pulling wings off insects,” is soft and his voice almost sounds exactly like Max Bemis of Say Anything- it’s so great. It really feels like their older stuff, and I love it. The build up to “I’m fillin’ your prescriptions, the orange bottles stare me down,” is flawless and so wonderfully composed, the vocals becoming full and transitioning right into the chorus, full of potential for the classic pop-punk show gang vocals and moshing. It’s such a good mental image, and TWY is really all about community, and this is definitely their next anthem.
“I’ve been actin’ like I’m strong, but the truth is I’ve been losing ground…I hadn’t felt a heartbreak until now.” Those lines are just perfect. It’s like if you combined Four Year Strong and Say Anything, you’d get this chorus, and I’m in love with it. It has strength and power that seemed to be lacking in some of their previous tunes; it’s almost like a sense of confidence. They’ve absolutely improved musically, and seem to have gotten a real hold of what they want to sound like and do. The band has pretty much grown up.
The bass drives the song, giving it the feel of an opener-worthy jam. I could see the band opening their set with it to rev the crowd up- it’s pretty much the ideal pump-you-up song and proves that The Wonder Years is back and better than they’ve ever been.