It’s been twenty years since one of the most underrated albums ever, was released.  On August 31, 1999, Days of the New released their second album.  II – or the Green Album.  By this time front man and songwriter Travis Meeks was operating as the band.  He put all of his creative ideas into the album and the result was a huge leap not only sonically but also in overall production of the songs.  The stripped down sound of the first album was gone and while I know I’m taking a risk here by saying this – this album ranks higher for me than the first.  Don’t get me wrong, Shelf in the Room, The Down Town, Touch, Peel, and Stand and Where I Stand are insanely great songs and the incredible musicianship of Todd Whitener, Matt Taul and Jesse Vest is something that would always be missed.  But overall, II resonated with me much stronger than the first.

The first time I put on the CD, I was driving to Alabama.  I went to Best Buy (they actually used to sell CD’s!) the night before and bought Creed – Human Clay and Days of the New – II.  I put on Human Clay and I liked it.  A lot.  My thought was I’d probably play it on repeat the entire drive.  I listened to it twice consecutively.  After a quick rest stop break, I decided to give Green a listen.  When the first track, Flight Response started, the sound of the horses captured my imagination right away.  The song started slowly but gradually started to build into a locomotive state.  But then.  That voice.  By the time the snare came back in, I was hooked.  Big time.  Meeks powerful vocal exclaiming these lyrics:

I’ve lost my pill now I’m numb
Numb
Down on my knees wanting to die
Mistaken beliefs of real life
Life
Prepare for the flight
Reward your misguide
Get off your knees time to hide

The album continues with a series of songs that are connected by intros and codas that really give the record a concept feel.  His masterful handling of the acoustic guitar is something that should be celebrated.  Those little intros and outros are so special, they exist in their own little universe for me.  The Real, Enemy and Weapon and the Wound all flow into one another.  The first four songs on this album are among my favorites to ever open a record.  The Real is the first song on the album to feature Nicole Scherzinger on vocals.  This is something that I wasn’t aware of until just a few years ago.  I mean, I read the liner notes way back then but had no idea who she was.  I just knew that I absolutely loved her voice and the way it softly complimented Meeks stern tone.

Enemy was the highest charting song on the album.  It went to number two on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Song Chart and number ten on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart.  There was a noticeable difference in sound but still retained Meek’s signature acoustic guitar notes.

I mentioned Nicole Scherzinger a little earlier and I want to highlight two songs that really grabbed my attention all of those years ago.  Take Me Back Then and Phobics Of Tragedy are among the strongest songs on the album and Scherzinger’s voice is a major reason why.  She compliments Meeks vocal beautifully on both but in different ways.  On Take Me Back Then, hers is more in the background but if you put on a pair of headphones you can hear some really cool things going on in the chorus from Nicole.  Little nuances like going up on the word, Then, gives the harmony movement and the sound of her voice soothes out the combined vocal performance of her and Meeks.  Speaking of soothing, on Phobics Of Tragedy, her voice is much more out in front and again, her vocal tone is so relaxing.  Combined with Meeks powerful voice, it makes for some very special moments on the album. 

Bring Yourself and I Think also give us some further great Travis moments.  On Bring Yourself, Meeks delivers a harsher version of a Morrison-esque monologue but never feels contrived to me.  The listener feels those words and believes that Meeks means every word he says.  On I Think, the breakdown and back and forth between quick guitar string rakes and percussion is a nice piece of musical songwriting in that, it’s not always about vocal spikes to grab the audiences attention.  It jarred me the first time through and has since become a spot on the record I look forward to.

The next two songs are two that I feel like could’ve came off of one of the other Days albums.  I’m glad they are on this collection of songs but I just wanted to discuss the sound of each song.  Provider is the song on this album that could’ve come straight off of the first DOTN album (Yellow).  It just has that feel to it.  The guitar play, the melodic tone of the song and overall sound reminded me of the first album more than any other song.  Last One sounds like a precursor to the third album (Red).  It’s title and track placement is fitting for my theory.  I’m sure there’s no actual merit to what I’m saying, but having listened to the bands catalog at least as much as any band I’ve ever listened to, I can say that, in my opinion,  Last One would be right at home on the third album.

I decided to leave Not The Same as the track I mentioned last.  Lyrically it’s not most wordy song Travis has ever written but its message is just as strong as anything he’s released.  It’s one of the darkest songs on the album, musically, lyrically and in overall tone.  To me, it appears that the fight is sometimes not the only the thing you wind up fighting.  There’s the obvious, there’s the relationship aspect and there’s the mental mind-fuck, that if you’re lucky never enters your head space.  But I won’t elaborate any further. 

Only Travis really knows, anyway.

Twenty years have passed since the release of II, and we’ve only had one album after this one to consume.  So while this article is meant to be a celebration of musical genius, it is also a little bittersweet, in that, the world has not been able to hear more music from Travis Meeks and Days of the New but I find myself grateful have what we’ve been given.  I won’t go too far down this path but every year I hold my breath in hopes that Purple or Tree Colors or whatever the fourth album was to be called, sees the light of day.  I guess time will tell but in the meantime I’m going to put on my headphones for the next hour or so and lose myself in this album once more.  I would highly suggest you do the same.  You’ll feel better in the morning.

-Tommy Marz

You can follow Tommy on Twitter and let him know what you think. Want more? Listen to the SoundVapors music review podcast.