BY; Dan Flynn, Owner

A Day In The Life Records

Some things are most certainly better left in the past, but what about those musical exceptions

that never deserved to be left behind and risk being lost forever, perhaps due to ill-fated

circumstances or unfortunate timing? True treasures that are collecting dust in a vault rather

than living in the world and existing as a gem on your record shelf. A rumored artifact locked

away and falling on no ears. There are many examples and the most frustrating part is the

never knowing. Sometimes we need someone to champion such a languishing article’s true

worth and to advocate for its existence.

28 years after the original recording sessions began, and were unceremoniously shelved, Man

Alive Records has brought Miltown’s “Tales Of Never Letting Go” into the world. The band

featured Brian McTernan (Be Well, Battery, Ashes), Jonah Jenkins (Only Living Witness) Jay

Cannava and Rob Dulaney and they began working on their intended full-length album in

December of 1997 but ultimately split, going their separate ways before the recordings were

even properly mixed, and thus the project was seemingly over before it began and left in the

rearview. In the majority of cases that’s where the story ends. Time moves on, the band

members take on new projects and roles, and the audience has no idea what it never heard.

However, in that rarest of instances, there is an ear and a heart, not to mention a determination,

that decides that the world does in fact need this to exist and puts their proverbial money where

their mouth is to resuscitate something that they know deserves to have the dust kicked off and

to see the light. Tom B. At Man Alive knew this to be the case with these unreleased tracks

from Miltown.

“Tales Of Never Letting Go” is a powerful collection of songs and certainly a peer of the heavy

“alternative” music that was being released in the second half of the 90’s, but there is something

particularly elevated about this collection. The playing is masterful and the lyrical content is as

heavy as the music itself. These are songs that assure you that you’re not alone in how you

feel. Mournful, contemplative and with traces of hope and a desire for things to turn out right in

the end. Perhaps that’s the true irony here, that is HAS come out right in the end. On some

level “Tales Of Never Letting Go” needed to take 3 decades to arrive, it needed someone to

dream it up, to come at it from an alternate angle and push it over the finish line, and we, the

audience, needed to be ready for it.

Achingly beautiful tracks like “Lost Sleep For Weeks”, “Art Thief”, “America Through A

Windshield” and “Twin Olympic Pools” (to name but a few from an absolutely stacked album)

will assuredly be listed amongst the best songs you’ve heard in a very long time…and to think

that they almost went completely unheard. This is heavy music, there is no question about that,

but the melodies and heart-on-sleeve energy makes this record extremely accessible to fans of

all types of music and not just those who like it loud. Fear not though, it does play extremely

well if you do in fact like it loud!

A melodic hardcore album, pummeling but wildly tuneful and with lyrics that are going to make

you feel a thing or ten. Music that elicits a physical and emotional response, I’m not sure that it

really gets any better than that. To think, these songs and perhaps even the story of Miltown

itself were nearly lost to time. You needn’t delay another moment though, the ship has been

righted and “Tales Of Never Letting Go” can now find its rightful place in your record collection.

There are some things that are NOT better left in the past.