Photo credit: Taylor Jones | | New York, NY (July 18, 2025) – To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the pop punk outfit, Acceptance, have announced their reimagined version of their quintessential album, Phantoms, called Phantoms/Twenty, recorded by original producer, Aaron Sprinkle, amid the band’s reunion and milestone anniversary. And while the band did redo their parts, this isn’t just any standard re-recording. | | To give new context to its profound and lasting legacy, Acceptance enlisted a wide range of artists across various genres, many of whom were inspired by the band. There are those who were already close to Acceptance including Stephen Christian of Anberlin, Memphis May Fire’s Matty Mullins, Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson, The Maine’s John O’Callaghan, Jenna McDougall from Tonight Alive and Hevenshe, All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, State Champs vocalist Derek DiScanio as well as Teddy Swims who has publicly shared that the band inspired and admitted the first song he learned how to play on guitar was an Acceptance track. | | All of the guests on the record inject a sense of reverence and gratitude into the songs, as if by being on them is their way of saying thank you to the band for making this album all those years ago. Acceptance also asked each person who contributed to write a little blurb about why they wanted to take part, something that, for the band, was almost as meaningful as their guest spots. | | “I graduated high school, Class of 2004, in a fever dream of guitar chords and burned CDs—when Phantoms was gospel and “Take Cover” was the song we howled at underage house parties, banging on beat-up acoustics during that final summer of childhood before the real world was supposed to start. Navigating restless tides in a sea of indie-label-cred-focused bands was Acceptance, touting clean hooks and songs in major keys on a debut album released on Columbia proper. A key influence, their sound carved out a path we prayed we might walk down eventually.” Martin Johnson shares, and continues, “I remember blasting the album front to back, cooking down 495 from Andover to band practice in Taunton with the windows down and dreams bigger than our hometowns. We all crowded on the stage at the old Avalon Club in Boston, watching and taking notes when the Truck Stops and State Lines Tour came through town in 2005—one class of releases before our debut. It was electric. It was sacred. That night lit a fuse. I still believe that when Boys Like Girls signed to Columbia ourselves, it was because Acceptance lived there first. Now, here we are, twenty years later. To be given the opportunity to record a piece of this song and join hands for this reawakening is not just an honor—it’s a full-circle miracle of an encore I never expected to be a part of.” | | Acceptance adds “Martin was one of the first artists we thought of when we originally started on this journey. Boys Like Girls were label mates with Acceptance at Columbia Records and we always felt there was a strong musical connection. Take Cover, a song that was originally written to capture the raw emotion of being young and navigating love and betrayal, seemed like a perfect match for Martin’s signature vocal style. He has such a charismatic presence, which really shows in his interpretation of the song. Martin took it, ran with it and the collaboration turned out better than we could have imagined. We couldn’t think of a more fitting way to kick off Phantoms/Twenty.” |
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