Tag: Emo
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Arm’s Length ‘Never Before Seen, Never Again Found’ (2022)
Never Before Seen, Never Again Found feels like a breath of fresh air for anyone who grew up loving emo but got a little tired of all the self-importance that came with it. The band pulls together the best parts of that elder emo energy—heart-on-sleeve lyrics, crashing guitars, and melodies that actually stick—with none of…
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Charmer ‘Downpour’ (2025)
It’s relatively rare nowadays that I listen to an album from a band that is 1) Completely brand new to me 2) Was found organically and not recommended by a friend 3) Impresses me so much that I listen to it for a week plus before writing an article about it. Charmer’s Downpour is the…
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Story Of The Year ‘Page Avenue’ (2003)
Every millennial knows “Until The Day I Die”, but not many (including myself until this week) are super familiar with their entire album Page Avenue. Which is a shame cause holy hot damn does this entire album MF’ing rip. The dueling guitars of Ryan Phillips and Philip Sneed go so damn hard sometimes it’s easy…
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Michael Cera Palin ‘I Don’t Know How to Explain It’ (2018)
I Don’t Know How to Explain It is actually relatively easy to explain. Tightly written emotionally charged emo-pop punk that plays to the genre’s strengths that blends catchy melodies and Midwest emo guitar noodling in its punchy runtime. The unexpectedly awesome cover of Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” show off their knack for…
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Spanish Love Songs ‘Brave Faces Everyone’ (2020)
Spanish Love Songs isn’t for everyone. But they certainly are for me. I love their Americana-tinged pop punk, the raw vocals from lead singer Dylan Slocum, and the honesty in which they approach their songwriting. Every song is a story that comes from a place of honesty. While Slocum’s harsh “yell-sing” vocals may be grating…
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Senses Fail ‘Let It Enfold You’ (2004)
One of my buddies was a huge Senses Fail fan back in high school and while I never really got too deep into their discography, I certainly listened to a ton of Let It Enfold You. Their hit single “Buried A Lie” was everywhere during the emo heyday, a real mainstream success, which in retrospect…
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Fiddlehead ‘Between the Richness’ (2021)
Between the Richness explores the stickiness of trauma without ever getting lost and succumbing to the overbearing weight of grief. A blast of hardcore energy filtered through the melodic shine of ‘90s alternative and the heart-on-sleeve intensity of emo from the mid-80’s.
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Origami Angel ‘Somewhere City’ (2019)
Origami Angel burst onto the modern emo scene with a fastball-down-the-pipe energy which blended rapid-fire math rock with hyperactive skate-punk and added in a dose of unshakable optimism. Somewhere City is a nod to a world where childhood comforts like all-day Danny Phantom marathons and Happy Meals serve as legitimate forms of self-care (shoutout to…
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Coheed and Cambria ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3’ (2003)
Coheed and Cambria blend progressive rock, post-hardcore, and a deep love for sci-fi storytelling. Their albums follow The Amory Wars, a sprawling space opera written by lead singer and frontman Claudio Sanchez. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 is no exception, packed with soaring melodies, intricate guitar work, and dramatic, theatrical vocals. It’s ambitious,…
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Further Seems Forever ‘The Moon Is Down’ (2001)
Pretty much everyone in my elder millennial age group remembers Chris Carrabba for his work with Dashboard Confessional in the early 2000’s. As I wrote about in my review of Dashboard’s 2001 album The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, Carrabba single-handedly made the introverted kid lacking self-confidence blessed with a penchant for…
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Casey ‘Love Is Not Enough’ (2016)
I dearly loved Casey’s 2024 comeback album How To Disappear, and their debut album Love Is Not Enough from 2016 is equally special albeit in an entirely different way that harkens back to one of my favorite albums from the mid-2000’s. Imagine for a moment two brothers separated at birth, adopted and raised by two…
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Joyce Manor ‘Never Hungover Again’ (2014)
If you’re looking for an album that is a masterclass in brevity, you’ve come to the right place. Never Hungover Again packs an emotional punch into its 19-minute runtime that most albums twice its length struggle to achieve, and marked a turning point for the band which saw them refinine their punk-rooted sound into something…
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Sunny Day Real Estate ‘Diary’ (1994)
Diary came during a time when grunge dominated the airwaves but despite the fact Sunny Day Real Estate was based in grunge’s birthplace of Seattle their unique blend of post-hardcore and emo rock was able to cut through the noise (it also didn’t hurt that frontman Jeremy Enigk could channel the hell out of Kurt…
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Brand New ‘Your Favorite Weapon’ (2001)
When Brand New dropped Your Favorite Weapon in 2001, few could have predicted the monumental impact the Long Island band would have on alternative music in the decade that would follow. At its core their debut was a fiery pop-punk record, drenched in youthful angst, sharp melodies, and Jesse Lacey’s piercingly personal lyrics. The energy…
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The Jealous Sound ‘Kill Them With Kindness’ (2003)
The Jealous Sound’s music occupies a bittersweet niche in indie rock’s history—respected by peers and beloved by fans, yet never achieving mainstream recognition. Rising from the remnants of Knapsack and Sunday’s Best, the band crafted a distinctive sound blending Blair Shehan’s understated, palm-muted rhythms with Pedro Benito’s shimmering leads. Their music, at once emotionally charged…
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The Promise Ring ‘Nothing Feels Good’ (1997)
As a certifiable emo kid in my teens there were a few albums that had an outsized impact on many of my favorite bands. I didn’t know it at the time, but some of my favorite artists like Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and Jimmy Eat World owed a ton to Nothing Feels Good by…
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Underoath ‘Define The Great Line’ (2006)
After the success of They’re Only Chasing Safety Underoath had a choice to make when recording their follow up album— double down on the polished pop screamo sound that made that album a cult classic, or further explore some of the metalcore aspects littering that album. They chose the latter and they were decisive, as…
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The Fall of Troy ‘Doppelganger’ (2006)
The Fall of Troy was an underground favorite of mine during high school– their innovative blend of post-hardcore, math rock, and progressive metal was a dynamic addition to my musical repertoire that coincided with my love for post-hardcore bands like Underoath. Doppelganger is by far their best album in my eyes, and features all the…
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Pianos Become The Teeth ‘Keep You’ (2014)
I first heard Pianos Become The Teeth a few months ago and was immediately taken by their sound. It’s moody, somber, introspective, and brooding in a way that reminded me a lot of some of my favorite albums of all-time– the dark storytelling and enunciation of Jesse Lacey on Brand New’s The Devil & God…
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Casey ‘How To Disappear’ (2024)
Casey’s 2024 album How To Disappear marked a return for the Welsh based five piece after a five year hiatus where there future was uncertain. The band broke up in 2019 after lead singer Tom Weaver suffered severe health complications, reuniting a few years later once they realized they collectively had more to say. The…
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Rufio ‘Perhaps, I Suppose…’ (2001)
Perhaps, I Suppose… is what I remember my early teens sounding like– obsessed with girls with absolutely zero experience in how to communicate with them, imbuing way too much meaning into mundane fleeting glances, and desperately trying to figure out what all these big feelings going on in my head were all about (hint: it…
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Taking Back Sunday ‘Tell All Your Friends’ (2002)
If you were a dude in high school during the mid-2000’s, Taking Back Sunday was a defining band in the era that defined the emo genre. Lead singer Adam Lazzara’s impeccable swag was the stuff every friend I knew wanted to emulate. His carefree long hair, impeccable vocal range, and stage presence that included him…
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Motion City Soundtrack ‘Commit This To Memory’ (2005)
Motion City Soundtrack was a perennial favorite of mine during high school. This was the era of my life when pop punk reigned supreme and I immediately found connection with Motion City Soundtrack for a variety of reasons– our shared Midwest roots (we both hail from the Twin Cities in Minnesota), their unique blend of…
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Circa Survive ‘On Letting Go’ (2007)
When former Saosin lead singer Anthony Green left Saosin to form a new project in the mid-2000’s it was soul-crushing to 15 year old me. I was an avid fan of their 2003 EP Translating The Name and couldn’t imagine a world in which they wouldn’t be making music together. It all worked out in…
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Touché Amoré ‘Stage Four’ (2016)
One thing I’ve always loved about American post-hardcore is the genre’s willingness to tackle difficult subject matter head-on. Cancer kills almost 10 million people per year worldwide, and yet it’s rare to find songs (let alone entire albums) which directly reference the disease and detail the visceral impact it has on the families and friends…
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Hot Mulligan ‘Why Would I Watch’ (2023)
Hot Mulligan is the natural evolution of the mid 2000’s emo and pop punk movement, a band whose creativity and songwriting can both probably be safely described as being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, pinwheeling between chord breaks and rhythmic staccatos at a frenetic pace. As a songwriter myself it’s pretty apparent that what these…
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From First to Last ‘Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count’ (2004)
Long before Skrillex was an EDM god winning Grammy awards hand over first and playing to festivals with 100K ravers in attendance he was known as Sonny Moore, the frontman of emo rock outfit from First To Last who played to a mere 100 raving lunatics in small dingy rock clubs. I was one of…
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Saves The Day ‘Through Being Cool’ (1998)
Through Being Cool is a nostalgic reminder of simpler times. I first got into this album in middle school and re-listening to it again at the age of 36 with two young kids running around the house represented just how fast life can change and how far it can take you on this wild journey.…
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As Cities Burn ‘Son I Loved You At Your Darkest’ (2005)
Emo and its tangential offshoots have long been a love of mine (as anyone who has been reading my thoughts on music over the past year and a half have known), and As Cities Burn is one of those deep cut albums which has long cemented itself as a cult-classic personal favorite. There’s a bit…
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The Movielife ‘This Time Next Year’ (2000)
Anyone familiar with emo and its various offshoots during the mid aughts can immediately recognize that distinctive Long Island sound– sugary sing-a-long pop hooks with a deliberate nod to the hardcore roots that dominated the scene in the mid-to-late 90’s. Bands like Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, and Glassjaw effectively defined that Long Island sound…
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Pierce The Veil ‘Collide With The Sky’ (2012)
Pierce The Veil’s third studio album Collide With The Sky saw the band take their brand of post-hardcore and screamo to new heights, incorporating power pop hooks and massive arrangements into their torrent of guitar hooks. This album has everything that’s fun about the emo genre– high pitched vocals, massive drums, and abrupt dynamic changes…
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Dashboard Confessional ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most’ (2001)
Chris Carrabba was the poster child for emo music during its formative years. He single-handedly made the introverted kid lacking self-confidence blessed with a penchant for observational insights cool, and doubly so when that protagonist was armed with an acoustic guitar and an earnest approach to telling his story. This Holden Caulfield from Catcher In…
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Brand New ‘The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me’ (2006)
It’s hard to put into words what Brand New meant to me during my late teens and early 20’s. They were undoubtedly one of my favorite bands for a long period of time, held the top spot for a good chunk of that, and spanned multiple groups of friends. Deja Entendu was the soundtrack to…
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My Chemical Romance ‘The Black Parade’ (2006)
The Black Parade was emo’s answer to The Who’s Tommy, a concept album that sounded more like a Broadway musical production than a standard rock record. From soaring guitars to a rollicking rhythm section to Gerard Way’s distinctive gritty falsetto and dramatic enunciation, The Black Parade was Vaudeville on steroids and one of the most…
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Chiodos ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ (2005)
Chiodos’ 2005 All’s Well That Ends Well is a deep cut for anyone who was a hardcore screamo fan in the mid aughts (guilty as charged!). This was one of those bands that was so damn weird and unique but it all just seemed to work. Lead vocalist Craig Owens pushed his vocal range to…
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Underoath ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ (2004)
Three albums into their career Underoath was at somewhat of a cross roads. Their first three records had received limited commercial success, and following the departure of then lead vocalist and band co-founder Dallas Taylor (who went on to form the excellent Southern heavy metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster), they had to…
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