There is something very special about a band’s sophomore album. Debut records are often a band or artist trying to really find their footing. Members of ensembles may come and go, solo artists may play around with their vocal ranges, and overall someone’s very first album is generally seen as a sign of just how much potential they have. That second album, though? That is where they shine.
Sleeping With Sirens was no exception to this ‘rule’. With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear, their debut, was released in 2010, with songs like “If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn” taking the scene by storm. It left fans craving more, desperate for another taste of those blended harmonies and compelling instrumentations.
Let’s Cheers To This did not, under any circumstances, disappoint.
Released on May 10th, 2011, listeners had already been treated to not one, but two singles just a month prior, the first of which being the opening track of the record.
“Do It Now Remember It Later” managed to set a tone for the entire album right from the start. A message of, quite simply, throwing a very intentional middle finger at the people who tell you that you’ll never succeed. Overall it’s a theme that carries through many of the songs that come to follow. The entire record is a call to those of us who felt (and still feel) that the world is against us and waiting for us to fail. It delivers very clearly the sentiment that we are more than what other people say that we are.
Songs like “Who Are You Now”, and “Four Corners And Two Sides”, as well as the closing track (and the title of the album) “Let’s Cheers To This” all carry this same sentiment. The world may doubt you, but the world is very much wrong, and you should go out and prove it.
The other three singles we were treated to were just as high up on the scale of earworms as their predecessors. “Fire” is a song that absolutely requires the use of a hairbrush and a bathroom mirror to properly perform, while “If You Can’t Hang” had everyone very loudly blasting Kellin Quinn’s voice over their speakers in the event of a particularly nasty breakup.
“A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son” was the final single pushed, which many people might say was quite possibly the most important of the lot. While the rest of the album fluctuates between the yellow of old parchment paper and shining gold, “Trophy” hits us with a deep purple, which is a beautiful contrast to the marbled shades of pink that come along with a personal favorite track, “All My Heart”.
Let’s Cheers To This, as the band reminded fans on Instagram, is 14 this year. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing, isn’t it? There’s nothing quite like sitting back and realizing just how far you’ve come since the first time you listened to an album.
Whether you’ve been a fan right from the beginning of the band in 2009, or if you’ve only just fallen in love after When We Were Young Festival in 2024, there is absolutely no denying the impact this album had on both Sleeping With Sirens’ journey to the band they are now, or the multitude of people they’ve helped along the way.
With just two days before the start of the I Can’t Hear You tour where they will be once again (for the first time since 2014!) sharing a stage with Pierce The Veil, it’s as good a time to celebrate as any.
If you’re interested in catching the band on tour, you can find tickets via the Sleeping With Sirens website. If you’re not able to make it to a show, be sure to follow along and keep up on X, and Instagram.
