Some bands, not many, reach a moment in their career when further success appears preordained. To that point, they’ve been laying groundwork. They’ve released well-received albums, played increasingly busy headline shows and leapt onto arena supports with like-minded bands who, a few years ago, were in the exact same spot. Tonight Alive are living that right now, and ‘Limitless’ is the album tasked with making the next step for them.
‘The Other Side’, released a little under three years ago, found the band leaning harder on glossy melodies than they had before but continuing to pay attention to the pop-punk that informed their beginnings. ‘Limitless’ is far less content to live in the past. This is an album designed specifically for lighters-aloft gatherings in the biggest venues possible.
Its ambition, though, doesn’t get followed up. This is a remarkably one-paced record that lands somewhere between 30 Seconds to Mars and Coldplay with a fresh-out-of-the-box distortion pedal. Dominated by mid-paced rockers and ballads, it’ll frustrate a good number of those won over by its predecessor.
The problem extends to its rote lyrics. Playing on its title, the album is preoccupied with freedom in the broadest sense of the word.
Largely avoiding specifics, Jenna McDougall instead rolls out sentiments that will ring true with some and absolutely hollow with others, from the self-explanatory To Be Free to Oxygen’s chorus: “Leave the past behind, I have arrived. I will light up the sky if you let me breathe my oxygen.” Drive, meanwhile, relies on “my way or the highway” as its hook.
Tonight Alive do still pack a satisfying crunch at times, though. I Defy’s opening moments are super slick, as is the predictable but gratifyingly sweet catch and release of Waves. It just isn’t enough to save ‘Limitless’, which might end up being the misstep that nevertheless puts their name up in lights.
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