Miltown's 'Tales of Never Letting Go', an All-Time Great of '90s Alt Rock, Has FINALLY Been Released After Nearly 30 Years in Limbo!

9.7.2025

Where to begin with this monumental landmark of a release? What follows will certainly be at least a thousand words longer than most anyone will read, but on principle it must be done.

Mid-to-late-'90s. Boston. Post-hardcore leaning toward hefty, emotionally anthemic alternative rock. Jonah Jenkins (Only Living Witness, Milligram, etc.) on vocals. Future production maestros Brian McTernan and Matt Squire (both of Battery, Ashes, etc.) on guitar. Jay Cannava, bass; Rob Dulaney, drums.

I can't pretend that I cared at the time. For whatever reason, Miltown wasn't on my radar until I encountered their music online, a good five or six years after the band had dissolved.

There was an infamous old forum post somewhere in which Jonah shared Miltown's major label saga in grave detail. It seemed like a sore subject—understandably so. The band had secured a considerable contract with Warner Bros. subsidiary Giant Records and endured a tumultuous late-'97/early-'98 recording experience at Long View Farm Studios for a full-length album with Toby Wright, which ultimately led to a less-than-clean breakup before the sessions were fully mixed and complete. Thus, the masters were shelved—apparently collecting dust in a Southern California warehouse for almost 30 years. Needless to say, from a fan's perspective, at no point during that time did it seem like there was ever a chance in hell that the resulting album—Tales of Never Letting Go—would officially see the light of day.

Over time, bits and pieces did get out there. In the early-to-mid-2000s, Jonah was involved with a record label called Traktor7, and I seem to recall their website hosting mp3s of "Unraveling" and "Esperanto." A few tracks wound up on YouTube. Eventually, a blog (the name escapes me, I apologize, but thank you, whoever you are) posted nine leaked rough-mixes from the Long View Farm sessions, which I promptly downloaded and lost my mind over.

It was then that I realized: this was one of the greatest albums I had ever heard in my entire life, and a—figurative, I guess—crime had been committed. In my mind, Warner Bros. was to blame. From that point forward, every single time I saw the Warner Bros. logo on an album, I would kinda shake my head in disgust. Look, Miltown's Hydra Head EP was fine. The Salad Days demos that the band threw onto Bandcamp back in 2019 were pretty great, but... just not the same. Those Salad Days demos being resurrected kinda signified to me that, indeed, the Long View recordings were never properly getting out there.

So, when news was shared last year that a Tales of Never Letting Go vinyl release was actually going to happen, I couldn't believe it. I had to temper my excitement—which was only ever-so-slightly easier since it wasn't coming out on my beloved CD format, heh—because it felt like there was still a chance that shit would go wrong, again, and something might fall through.

It didn't. And here we are.

Probably the greatest formerly-unreleased album ever recorded is now available, presently classified as one of the finest and possibly-to-remain most underrated alternative rock albums of all time. Tom Bejgrowicz from Man Alive Creative has worked wonders before, but this is next-level. This is a fucking miracle. Truly. I've shared openly in the past that I have literally shed tears over these songs—both because they're that powerfully emotive, but also just sitting there in despair thinking, "How could this possibly have gone unreleased? What fool, what despicable moron would hear any of this and fail to recognize its brilliance? How? HOW!?" It just seemed impossible.

One of my only mild concerns as I prepared to listen to the finished album in its entirety was, "Will these be the ones—the same renditions that I've been flipping out over for the last 15-ish years?" To my sheer delight, the answer is yes—but, even better. Everything has been recently remixed by McTernan, so it's all so much fuller and there are so many more subtle details to discover—the panning, the layering, the crack of the snare, and well-defined pulse of the bass. Certain guitar parts have been accentuated more than I was familiar with, a couple of vocal harmonies have been toned down a smidge here and there—none of which is a problem. The character and astonishing impact of an already exceptional album has somehow been made even more exceptional.

Just compare and contrast the three re-recorded tracks that originally appeared on the Hydra Head EP—"Tales of Never Letting Go," "Delicate Fiction," and "No Matter"—and I think you'll understand a portion of what makes this album and these recordings so special. To my ears, compared to 1996, all three have blossomed from pretty good to great—and these aren't even Tales of Never Letting Go's highest peaks!

I believe "Unraveling" was the first Miltown song I ever heard, and it crushed me right off the bat with those opening lyrics, "When I saw my father cry for the first time, I knew that I was no longer glad to be alive..." Because—over-sharer's corner here—the first time I can remember having seen my father cry was at my mother's funeral when I was 14. Enough said, I suppose. I mean, god damnit, man, that one prolonged background scream of, "No longer glad to be aliiiiiiiiive..." (1:53)? Unstoppable. And now, having a lyric sheet, Jonah's brilliant wordplay is revealed toward the end (2:12), where the line "on a makeshift failure" is seamlessly morphed into "only makes you feel you're." Whew. I still use an iPod daily, and my love for this song is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that amidst my entire iTunes library, this is the #2 most-played track.

"Lost Sleep for Weeks" has grown to rival "Unraveling" for my potential top favorite. Incredible chorus, and that whole break in the middle (1:23)—culminating with, "This is something I have learned from."—is one of the most striking passages ever, and further cements Jonah's position as an unmatched vocalist. To this day it gives me chills every time, I can't not sing along.

Another highlight, "Even as We Speak" is an utterly fantastic song. Again, with the lyric sheet, I've always wondered, "Is he saying 'of indication' or 'of vindication'?" Both, of course! Again, that homophonous brilliance! (Hinted at once more with "television"/"terrorism" in "America Through a Windshield.")

Closing out what for me is the "grand slam" four of the album, "Esperanto"—man, just a fuckin' flawless tune. Hooks for days, a perfect fusion of heaviness and melody, plenty of textural subtleties swirling around, startling lyrics that can't be ignored ("...and every day I wanna die."). A+.

"Twin Olympic Pools" was the lone song I had never heard before in any form, and holy shit. Almost interludial smack in the middle, its sparse, somber genius just stops me in my tracks. I damn-near teared up on the very first listen. I've surmised over time that the entirety of Tales of Never Letting Go represents Jonah's most impressive vocal performance ever, and I dare say this particular composition might factualize that statement.

But there's not a single weak link in the bunch. 100% skip-free. "Cleverer" is a perfect opener—high-energy, kickass riff after kickass riff; "8/6/45" is similar in tone/delivery, and on and on. Each and every track is an easy keeper.

I always neglect to shout-out Miltown's rhythm section, but their performances are equally stellar—the drumming hard-hitting and solid, with great little hooky fills and occasional frantic, skittery twists; and all those moments where the guitars drop back and let the bass keep the riffs moving. Every piece of this puzzle is crucial.

If you're unfamiliar with Tom B.'s graphic design work, it's all phenomenal, so the layout here is gorgeous—stunning cover photography; full-color, double-sided dust jacket containing all of the lyrics and credits; and full-color, double-sided insert collaging photos and ephemera from the band's time at Long View Farm. The blue vinyl is indeed "glacial," the tangerine an aesthetic companion to the dominant color scheme of the packaging, the classic black "pitch" for sure. Had they released it on one of those dumb retro 8-tracks, I would've bought that, too.

Having posthumously established an influential status, Only Living Witness' fans need to hear this. Hell, anyone who enjoys any respectable form of '90s alternative rock needs to hear this. This is desert island disc material. I own over 11,000 physical pieces of music, and if you forced me to burn 99% of it, gun to my head, Tales of Never Letting Go is comin' with me. Permanently etched into my all-time Top 10 best.

Every ounce of dissatisfied anguish that the band may have suffered during the recording process was worth it, because this album is an indisputable masterpiece. Unparalleled. I can only hope that if enough of us scream as loudly as possible at every opportunity, an almost satisfactory number of people will begin to recognize this fact.

The prior 1,500+ words to essentially state that my deepest and most sincere gratitude goes out to everyone involved with this project for quite literally never letting go...