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The best emo/punk music albums tend to have creative lyrics, loud guitars, and lots of angst. Bayside’s album “Vacancy” (2016) readily meets all of these criteria with a passionate and transparent story that sticks with listeners. This album stands out by providing awesome songs for listeners to vent with and by showing listeners how to move on from difficult experiences in a realistic way.
“Vacancy,” tells the story of Bayside’s lead singer (Anthony Raneri)’s divorce from his second wife. The brilliance of “Vacancy” is its dive into the layers of emotions that one experiences when going through a multitude of major life changes. It is “Vacancy’s” focus on the emotions, as opposed to the process of the divorce itself, that keeps the album relatable for listeners who have not experienced a divorce. Bayside focuses on themes of nostalgia, frustration, and loss that a lot of people experience after a major life shift. Bayside’s album tells a great story even though each song is not centered around explaining the plot bit-by-bit. The album focuses on a raw and open exploration of the emotional shock caused by a sudden life change. And it is through this transparent exploration that “Vacancy” demonstrates how to reconcile with bad experiences without letting them consume you.
Three Of The Best “Vacancy” Tracks
While all of the songs on Bayside’s album deal with themes revolving around the intangible past and the frustrating present, three songs do it best. “Two Letters,” “Enemy Lines,” and “Mary” all do a great job of immersing listeners into the pain that Bayside’s album explores. These three songs focus on exploring complex and fluctuating emotions in their own unique ways. “Two Letters” tells listeners where the singer is emotionally. The whole song revolves around the singer’s confusion and frustration with the divorce and its aftermath. “Enemy Lines” takes a more meta approach, as it talks about the songwriting process. Finally, “Mary” steps away from the larger story of the divorce to introduce a new character.
Wordplay In “Two Letters”
As the first track on Bayside’s album, “Two Letters” sets the stage for “Vacancy’s” themes of longing and loss. For example, one of the earliest lyrics in the song is, “Maybe it’s all in my head, and nothing’s changed. And I’m still in the basement with no tattoos or mortgage payments.” (( Bayside. “Two Letters.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )) Here, the song plays around with the idea that the present moment is imaginary, and the past is the reality.
Interestingly, the song does not go the obvious route of using the divorce to differentiate between the past and the present. Instead, “Two Letters” uses the singer’s tattoos and bills. This choice demonstrates that the shock does not just come from the divorce itself but from the reality that there was a time before the pain. The song expresses the desire to go back in time and undo all of the circumstances that would lead up to the divorce years later. “Two Letters” continues this theme with its discussion of tenses. The whole song is constructed around the premise of tenses and how weird it feels to call a spouse an “ex.” This is demonstrated with the lyrics, “Well, I’m not so good with tenses. I’m tensing up thinking about what I’m supposed to call you now.” (( Bayside. “Two Letters.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )) The problem with the word “ex” goes back to the song’s struggle to understand the past and the present as they exist together.
In other words, the label “ex” implies a past that no longer exists, which the song argues is really hard to come to terms with. Even the title of the song, “Two Letters,” refers to the letters “e” and “x.” Additionally, the lyrics play around with the word “tense” itself, using two meanings of the word: the noun (a verb tense) and the verb (to physically tense). The entire song revolves around the inability to accept the present moment and the tenseness that discomfort causes.
Meta Explanations In “Enemy Lines”
Appearing later in Bayside’s album, “Enemy Lines” uses a more meta approach to unpack all of its emotions. The song directly addresses the lead singer’s ex-wife, who is the reason the song exists: “I am sorry, but I had to write a song about how you were wrong. I’m not even sure you were, but dear, that’s how I cope.” (( Bayside. “Enemy Lines.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )) The song mentioned in these lyrics is the very song “Enemy Lines,” written as part of the grieving process for the divorce.
The song even teases the ex-wife and taunts her by asserting that she should have seen this coming: “Did you think I would keep this bitter tongue behind crooked teeth and angry gums? Now you’re upset, but you’ve gotta admit it’s catchy.” (( Bayside. “Enemy Lines.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )) While it’s unclear whether the singer would actually know his ex-wife’s reaction to the song, it ultimately doesn’t matter.
What is important is that the song takes a moment to address the person who helped cause Raneri’s pain. While the song expresses anger and a fair bit of snark, the song is an example of a healthy way to start working through an unpleasant experience. I would argue that although the song is directed at the ex-wife, the song was written for the singer’s catharsis. This meta approach provides even more insight into the singer’s mindset than “Two Letters” does. Plus, listeners also get to experience an example of a healthy coping mechanism, which they could potentially use to work through their own issues. Overall, “Enemy Lines” offers a successful and emotional explanation for the singer’s feelings.
The Lesson Of “Mary”
“Mary” takes a very different approach by stepping away from the main story of Raneri’s divorce. However, this song continues to communicate the themes of the past and can still be understood as a warning for him. “Mary” centers around Mary, who wants to escape her current situation but fails to do so. At the beginning of the song, the singer reveals that he knew Mary, and over the course of their few meetings, he slowly watched the life drain out of her. Ultimately, Mary dies of unknown causes, and the singer talks about “[lighting] her [vigil] candle.” (( Bayside. “Mary.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )).
However, the chorus of the song does not focus on Mary’s failings or her death. Instead, it focuses on advice that the singer gave to Mary: “Get a plan together, get your demons out. ‘Cause Mary the world wants to bring you down, but don’t you let ’em.” (( Bayside. “Mary.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )). He tells Mary that she needs to figure out a way to combat the problems that life will throw at her in an attempt to crush her dreams. This song is brilliant because it communicates the lead singer’s own fears and anxieties through somebody else’s life. “Mary” can be understood as Raneri’s reminder not to let his divorce consume him. Instead, he needs to “get a plan” and “get his demons out.” (( Bayside. “Mary.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )).
As seen in “Enemy Lines,” it is easy to argue that the entire creation of Bayside’s album is the singer’s way of “[getting] his demons out.” (( Bayside. “Mary.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )). In all three songs, the lead singer makes an active effort not to be consumed by his pain, as he tries to work through it with music because that’s “how [he] copes.” (( Bayside. “Enemy Lines.” Vacancy, Hopeless Records, 2016. )).
Why You Should Listen To “Vacancy“
I find myself returning to this album time and time again because it provides an emotional release that I have been unable to find with other albums. “Vacancy” helps listeners work through their own pain by going through the same process in the lyrics. With “Two Letters,” the album begins in a very frustrating place where taking a moment to vent at the hopelessness of it all feels good. Then, as the album continues, “Vacancy” starts to work through feelings of anger and regret. It talks about how channeling your frustration into something (like music) can actually help you start to understand the situation. Illustrated in “Mary” and “Enemy Lines,” Bayside’s album offers ways to deal with these emotions. “Mary,” tells listeners to make a plan for the battle ahead, and “Enemy Lines” follows through on that advice by allowing listeners a glimpse into Raneri’s decision to cope with his divorce by writing music.
“Vacancy” shows listeners the value of learning to take control of their emotions, and consequently, their life. There are many different ways to find comfort and coping mechanisms that will make a loss feel less potent, and throwing oneself into an album is just one example. With clever wordplay and multilayered lyrics aimed at helping both the singer and the listeners, Bayside’s “Vacancy” is very much worth a listen — or three.
