Caamp released their sophomore album, By & By, in the summer of 2019. The album has since gone on to include fan favorites like Peach Fuzz, By & By, and Penny, Heads Up. The song is a combination of fun folk and pop songs that work to create an amazing sound for the album using songs they wrote from 17 to 25.
1. Feels Like Home
2. Keep The Blues Away
3. No Sleep
4. Peach Fuzz
5. Wolf Song
6. Penny, Heads Up
7. Wunderbar
8. On & On & On
9. Moonsmoke
10. Huckleberry Love
11. By & By
12. Of Love and Life
Tone Deaf Metric
Best Song
The best song on an album with as many good songs as By & By is definitely an amazing feat. However, No Sleep solidifies itself as the best with its phenomenal lyrics, upbeat pop-centric hook, and the greatest mixture of vocals and instrumentation on the album. The lyrics describe an artist traveling a city and the dilemma they face of leaving family and relationships behind to focus on the future of a career. These moments make the artist sleepless as they try to find the love for these new experiences. It’s a phenomenal track and definitely a favorite of Caamps.
Worst Song
When it’s hard to pick the best song, sometimes finding the worst one is even more challenging. Moonsmoke finds itself with that dishonor for its lack of change throughout the song. The track is rather slow-paced and gets repetitive, with the strumming of the same chords being repeated as the backing to the song's soft vocals. The lyrics are also not the best on this album, with only two verses and a refrain, making it one of the shortest. In all, I feel like the song just doesn’t live up to the hype and level the others make common on the album.
Most Underrated
Picking a song on an outstanding album such as this one for the most underrated is rather hard since most of the songs get the credit they deserve. That's why, for the most underrated track, I chose a song I usually see lower on rankings. On & On & On is your typical folk love song lyrically, but it shines in the vocals. The gritty vocals by singer Taylor Meier lend themself perfectly to the song’s tune. The song is a beautiful track and, more personally, one of my favorites from the album.
Most Overrated
As the first track on the album, it can be rather hard to keep a listener's attention. When your starting track is also the lengthiest, that can be an even harder task. The song uses its lyricism to describe this nostalgic feeling and the want to go back to those days, and while not a bad song, it feels underwhelming. When a song is as slow as it is, you expect it to either build or be rather short. When a track like Feels Like Home does neither, It can feel a bit misplaced compared to the rest of the album
1. No Sleep
2. By & By
3. Penny, Heads Up
4. Peach Fuzz
5. Keep The Blues Away
6. Huckleberry Love
7. On & On & On
8. Feels Like Home
9. Wolf Song
10. Of Love and Life
11. Wunderbar
12. Moonsmoke
Final Rating
Released as the sophomore album for Caamp, By & By consists of a great combination of genres that fuse together greatly with folk. The project was released in 2019 and was a major success for the band, with multiple tracks from it going on to be their most streamed. The use of gritty vocals, classic folk banjo, and guitar really helps to drive the Appalachian style into the songs while still keeping it close to the pop lyrics of some songs. Overall, the album is an amazing genre-bending album and one of the best folk albums that came out that year.
Credits
Preformers: Caamp
Producers: Evan Westfall, Taylor Meier, Matt Vinson, Caamp
Writers: Taylor Meier, Evan Westfall, Caamp
Distributed by: Mom+Pop