Recently within the Twitch Music community we were given another dose of Twitch Goes Emo which is certainly a favorite event of mine which cause me to rely on a few hours of sleep as I don’t want to miss any performances. The Twitch streamers who participate always put in a great deal of effort and it is obvious that are passionate about the music they are performing. These events always get me to ponder on about my own Emo music journey and since it has been over four years since I did a post like this I thought it was time I do another one. I have quite a lot to talk about when it comes to Emo music as it’s a phase I have been in since ‘98 but I promise to keep this succinct.

This winter is lasting forever

~

at least for tonight

~

This winter is lasting forever ~ at least for tonight ~

While watching the latest Twitch Goes Emo event I was thinking about what I would consider to be my top Emo albums of all time. What albums introduced me to the genre and caused me to begin my Emo music phase which is still going to this day. This list will quite possibly contain some albums you are unfamiliar with and that is not an effort on my part to be some sort of Emo music hipster. I am likely older than the average person reading this and was introduced to this genre by someone a number of years older than I am. So with that preamble out of the way here is the list (in order by year of release); of which I have chosen a few albums from to expand on.

Rites of Spring - Rites of Spring
Jawbreaker - Dear You
Cap’n Jazz - Shmap’n Shmazz
Mineral - The Power of Failing
The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Alkaline Trio - Good Mourning
The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
Thursday - Full Collapse
Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down

Rites of Spring - Rites of Spring

If I was to put bands in the category of the forefathers of Emo this group would definitely be in the list and probably at the top as well. “Emo” music wasn’t a thing when this group released this record in the mid 80’s. Punk music was all the rage at the time and there were not really any deep, desperate and introspective lyrics to be found in that genre. Though you may not realize the depth is there if you don’t pay close attention as these tracks aren’t sung in the more subdued and dulcet tones often associated with the Emo music genre. While it may be quite different from what currently dominates this genre it holds up well. Great music like this stands the test of time. “For Want Of “ is a favorite of mine.

Jawbreaker - Dear You

Personally I would consider this album among those that had a profound influence on what “Emo” music would come to be. What is so interesting to me about it is how different it is from the previous three albums Jawbreaker released. I am still sad about the fact that they never released any new music after creating this masterpiece. Everything before this was noticeably influenced by the Punk music scene which had been prevalent throughout the 80’s and then almost out of nowhere here comes Dear You. The Punk influence is still there but the sound on this record makes me think that before writing this they had some sort of profound musical revelation; this is an enlightened punk sound as odd as that it is to write. They combined this different sound with the most ingenious writing that Blake Schwarzenbach ever did; and it is not as if he hadn’t done good work before this but this was his magnum opus and it would have an affect on the Emo music scene into the early 2000’s. These components came together to create this very intimate Punk music experience it was Emo through and through whether it was done purposefully or not. “Save Your Generation”, “Jet Black”, “Sluttering” are superb tracks that would influence my personal Emo music journey for decades to come. Anytime I discovered new Emo music I would compare it to this record.

Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

I had a bit of an internal debate choosing between this album and Static Prevails; for me these are some of the band's only purely Emo records. In the end I had to choose Clarity. This is an album that as you listen to it, the amount of time and careful precision put into making it is immediately evident. This album is perfect and that's not something I say lightly; from beginning to end it's impossible to lose interest in the ethereal journey of preservation that you are on as you listen. At least that's what I see this album being about this stopping of time, striving to perpetuate this specific moment indefinitely and it does this brilliantly. I cannot always remember the specific time I first listened to an album but every time I listen to Clarity I am transported back to the first time I heard it; eleven years old alone in my bedroom having no real idea at all the magnificence of what I was experiencing but I thought I really enjoyed it. It would be years before I fully appreciated that moment in time. “For Me This is Heaven” has always felt like the emotional climax of the album; after you've been completely subdued by “Just Watch the Fireworks”, this track transports you to another world entirely. This is for me the penultimate Jimmy Eat World record. They haven’t done anything like it since. You can find songs scattered throughout the many albums that came after which contain small doses of this sound but all in all Clarity is a unique and profound experience. There are no other albums in their catalog that are so wonderfully Emo as this one.

Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down

I listened to such a large amount of Further Seems Forever and Dashboard Confessional in my youth that I simply had to talk about this album. This was for me one of the last great Emo albums. Emo music started to change after 2002 and it just wasn’t the same for me. Having said that I am not here to be a gatekeeper and say “you kids with your Paramore, All Time Low, Fall Out Boy and your Panic! At The Discos you think that is Emo music well let me tell you…” I enjoy certain albums from those bands myself but it was just different and a lot of it just isn’t really my style. 90’s and early 2000s Emo just hits different; in part that may be because I am old.

Back to the album. This is the only album from Further Seems Forever that I fully enjoyed. There is something about Chris Carrabba’s voice, it has this ability to inject feelings straight into my bloodstream and the vocalists that the band cycled through after him just never gave me that same feeling. Everything in this album is Emo to the core; it has that essence I talked about that Dear You possess which caused me to embark on my Emo music journey and I have listened to it each year consistently since its release. One of my top tracks from this record is “Snowbirds and Townies”. Just look at these lyrics:

“This winter is lasting forever,

At least for tonight.

And I know that you're never leaving,

Until your flight,

Takes you off,

And out of my arms,

And into the air,

So far from your charms,

That I can not bare,

Another year,

In this long forgotten beach town,

We once shared.”

I mean that is Emo music in every sense of the word. “This winter is lasting forever, at least for tonight.” I cannot tell you how many times I referenced that line in my Jr High and High School days when I would walk around quoting Poe, Plath, Pizarnik and Baudelaire thinking that I understood something about the pain and sorrow of life (I was quite an idiot). That doesn’t change the fact that this album is truly spectacular.

Not just a phase