Real Friends Torn in Two Review
Real Friends, for most of their career, appeared to always have new music on the verge of being released, while most of the band’s recordings have been composed into EPs, the band also has four studio albums that stand out from each other, one way or another. However, Real Friends’ newest album, “Torn in Two”, was the first album released from the band to not feature longtime lead vocalist Dan Lambton. While Real Friends’ latest release, “Torn in Two”, featured not only singles that were released promoting the album but also re-imagined versions of those songs, Real Friends even snuck a Smash Pumpkins cover in between the singles and the album’s release. Real Friends have also covered bands such as This Wild Life and Slipknot, among others, but “Tonight, Tonight” was the first cover to feature new vocalist, Cody Muraro. Below, we’ve reviewed Real Friends “Torn in Two”, went into detail on the newest album, released in September of 2021, and compared it to the band’s previous releases with their original vocalist.
Remedy for Reality
“Remedy for Reality” was the first song displayed on “Torn in Two”, but the first single the band had released before the full-length was “Nervous Wreck” and “Storyteller”, followed by a release of the two songs and their alternative versions together.
Nervous Wreck
As mentioned above, the original “Nervous Wreck” recording was released as a single bundled with “Storyteller”, but both songs were released a second time and bundled even further with the alternate versions of the songs. “Nervous Wreck” was one of the songs from “Torn in Two” that was reminiscent of the original Real Friends vocalist, but that was thrown out quite early in the song with the band’s new dynamic being brought in fast and hard, which would overall fit the previously known direction of Real Friends’ music.
Teeth
“Teeth”, like every other song on “Torn in Two”, has an alternative counterpart but “Teeth” may have had the most interesting alternative take as it was in the form of a full band rendition, turning the track into less of an acoustic track, like the original version of “Teeth”. While “Teeth” itself could have simply been called an acoustic version, it was originally an acoustic-style track.
Spinning
“Spinning”, along with “Remedy for Reality” were the only two songs to not be released as singles in any way before “Torn in Two” was dropped as a whole album, with the additional song renditions at the later end of the album.
Storyteller
Finally, we have our last original recording on Real Friends’ new album, “Storyteller”, which was one of the first singles the band shared from the album. It’s not very often that a band releases one of their singles promoting a coming album as the last song on a record but as Real Friends has spent the last few years doing things differently, this overall shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Overall, “Storyteller” was one of the more standout songs not only from “Torn in Two” itself but for their first record with their new vocalist who added a very new, and clear, dynamic.
Remedy for Reality Reimagined
Following the order of the songs on “Torn in Two” prior to the second renditions, the tracklisting repeated with the alternate versions of the songs, which made for an easy listen. “Remedy for Reality”, as well as the rest of the songs labeled as reimagined, featured a more upbeat, poppy production to them that made them almost a different genre outside of straight-up pop-punk entirely.
Nervous Wreck Reimagined
Much like the original “Nervous Wreck” presented earlier on “Torn in Two”, the reimagined version of the song felt like an older Real Friends song but that gets thrown out quickly with a different vocal style present compared to what was previously heard from the pop-punk outfit.
Teeth Full Band
As mentioned above, “Teeth” was the most standout track from “Torn in Two” immediately for it being the only alternate song from the album to be referred to as a full band track.
Spinning Reimagined
Overall, for our Real Friends “Torn in Two” review, “Spinning” as a reimagined track was possibly the least heavily produced and felt like a more acoustic, slower-styled track.
Storyteller Reimagined
Real Friends, although alined with a new vocalist, could have easily turned this album into two separate EPs but considering the distance between “Torn in Two” and the band’s last full-length, “Composure”, it could be easy to assume the band wanted their first release under Pure Noise Records to be among their most interesting on paper. Overall, for our Real Friends “Torn in Two” review, the effort felt exactly like a Real Friends album and held the atmosphere that they have generally gathered with their releases and the chemistry with their new vocalist appeared quite smooth.
