It's a long road...Considering punk-rock, that is... A hard, danger filled journey. TSOL have had their share of troubles. Honestly, TSOL is one of those bands who grow and change or in many cases as I seen personally, learn how to play their nstruments. Considering TSOL I see three distinct periods.
The first period is their earliest material leading up to Dance With Me (1981, Frontier) a really great album... Coupled with a live album in 1991* featuring the original line-up that offered a focused beautiful example of their earliest works. It fit nicely with Dance and made second-period releases such as Beneath The Shadows (1983) to 1990s Strange Love that sounds, in my opinion, inconsistent, weak and unfocused.
So, why did I get the re-vamped TSOL release Disappear (2001, Nitro)? I can't really put it into words, but the CD stood out to me. Everything I thought considering my views of TSOL told me that I shouldn't buy it but I did! I knew I was taking a huge chance and breaking my 'no more blind-buys' mantra of music buying but Disappear called out to me, so I went with that.
You know how sometimes it, a feeling that I can't explain with words, just hits. The volume knob goes up higher and higher and the CD stays in your player for weeks. Disapper was THAT sort of buy.
So it might be 2014, and Disappear was released in 2001; over a decade old... BUT it sounds like a good follow-up to Dance With Me. Hard-hitting punk-rock that mixes the early TSOL political hard core punk-rock with the emotional goth feeling that was started, but gone astray during the bands 'second period.'
Disappear ushers in the 'third period' of TSOL. The band has released three more albums since Disappear. Considering inconsistency of that second period of TSOL, I will tread softly in my journey ahead and see what this third period of TSOL has to offer. Disappear is worth a listen trust me on this!
* the one released by Triple X that was released when they couldn't play as TSOL.