the emo canon

ive been thinking a lot since bumping this thread/listening to these three albums yesterday:

Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good // Braid - Frame and Canvas // Get Up Kids - 4 Minute Mile //

what else belongs in the emo canon?

in no particular order, i'd start with:

the promise ring - 30° everywhere
the promise ring - nothing feels good
the promise ring - very emergency
braid - frame and canvas
the get up kids - four minute mile
the get up kids - something to write home about
jimmy eat world - static prevails
jimmy eat world - clarity
jets to brazil - orange rhyming dictionary
piebald - when life hands you lemons
piebald - if it weren't for venetian blinds it would be curtains for us all
cap'n jazz - analphabetapolothology

on the far ends of the spectrum i'd add shit like sunny day real estate and saves the day??

please feel free to use this thread to argue over the meaning of the word "emo" and to indulge in cute nostalgia

rainer maria - past worn searching and/or look now, look again

neither are their best record but those are the emo ones

jejune - this afternoons malady belongs here too

if the hated had ever released an album i would be putting it here

personal faves:

knapsack - day three of my new life
sunny day real estate - how it feels to be something on
jawbreaker - 24 hour revenge therapy (too indie???)
jets to brazil - orange rhyming dictionary

there are a lot of albums that are in my personal ~emo~ cannon that i guess really arent, i half lump stuff like 'fevers & mirrors' and early songs: ohia, june panic, 'it's hard to find a friend' in with this stuff because i cared a lot about it around the same time

'poised to break' by sunday's best is another good one

interesting sdre pick, lamp-- feel like most ppl would go w/ one of the first two?

like 'em or not, SDRE has to be on any emo canon list. probably the first two (maybe three) albums, though I think the last one, The Rising Tide, is their best.

i always think of Saves The Day as more pop-punk, tho.

what about that one Texas Is The Reason album?

interesting sdre pick, lamp-- feel like most ppl would go w/ one of the first two?

yeah i think LP2 is probably the cannon pick here but i started listening to emo stuff after looking for more stuff like songs: ohia and like silver jews so ive always sorta gravitated towards the beardier, slower stuff? ive actually put 'how it feels...' on rn, very quiet, in my apartment and its even more mellow and jammier than i remembered but it still kills p hard even if some of it sounds like built to spill

"how it feels" came after a hiatus of a few years iirc?

always felt it and rising tide were more proggy and less emo-- both prob belong in any canon tho

saw them live when they toured in support of both those albums-- one time waiting outside a sold-out show at the metro for three hours watching ppl scalp tickets for $100 until finally getting one at face value minutes before sdre went on

do rites of spring count

yeah arent rites of spring the ~original~ emo band?

man i'm listening to Diary right now and if you swapped out the vocals this could be a pearl jam album almost?

rites of spring and embrace just sound like hardcore bands to me tbh

Jawbox should be here too. I remember an article on these 90s second-wave emo bands (Braid, Promise Ring, etc) in Guitar World where nearly all of them cited 'Grippe' as an influence.

Moss Icon was another band mentioned - their discography just got reissued.

Did the Hated not have an album? I bought some sort of LP thing of theirs in the late 80s, maybe it was just a mini-album/EP. Had a 2 x 7" too which was a lot better iirc, though ultimately still kind of annoying. Think I picked these up cos I read in MRR that Bob Mould had produced one of their records or something. I found out to my cost that this was by no means a guarantee of quality.

Another great, underrated emo band was Mock Orange (specifically their first two albums Nines And Sixes and The Record Play).

Should emo-hardcore-bands like Thursday be considered third- (or maybe fourth-) wave emobands?

The Hated had a mini-LP and a LP-length demo that got presed to vinyl

used to be p impressed in oldilx days that the singer from The Hated posted here

if I started posting like Mohinder and Angel Hair youtubes or whatever it would effectively ruin the thread right

used to be p impressed in oldilx days that the singer from The Hated posted here

oh shit, col1n m33der right? that was the same guy?? I had never made that connection before

not sure why i am g00gl3pr00f1ng him btw, just seems polite to

iirc he hardly ever posted about being in a band but yeah

today's amazing-to-me fact, thanking you djm

I was really into this stuff for a while and am still quite fond of some of it. Some others I liked:

The Appleseed Cast - Mare Vitalis
American Football - s/t
Christie Front Drive - Anthology CD
Elliott - False Cathedrals

I suppose Mineral deserve a place in the canon but I never liked them much.

Hmm... a mixtape within reach from this era seems to also contain (on top of Braid/Get Up Kids/Promise Ring/Piebald) the likes of Samiam, Jejune, Lifetime, Seaweed, Superchunk, Joan of Arc, Pedro the Lion, J Church, Avail... (some of those are obviously not 'emo' by any definition, but they could sit side-by-side).

Strictly Ballroom were a big band in L.A. at the time (and contained the people that became Beachwood Sparks and Dntel). They were really great and only put out one album (called "Hide Here Forever," which is about as emo as it gets - it's a great album, though). They were dubbed, by the press - or maybe the band themselves - "enocore," because they did lots of ambient soundscapes in between screamy stuff.

I remember this scene was always mocked by punks, but it really did reach a self-parody saturation point pretty quickly. I remember going to (the late, lamented, legendary) No Life in L.A. to see an instore by a bunch of emo bands and two of them were named after lyrics from other emo bands (December's Tragic Drive (an SDRE lyric) and something like Patient Boy, or some Fugazi thing!)

A surprising amount of it holds up well, though, as far as I'm concerned!

Another small band that didn't get a lot of national recognition but made scene waves was Ashes from Washington, D.C. - really pretty female vocals over palm-muted crunchy chords. They actually probably pre-dated the third-wave stuff, but their album is great. Wait - if RoS and Embrace were first wave emo, and Promise Ring et al were third-wave, what made up the second wave?

Lifetime! How could I forget them! One of my favorite bands EVER, though I personally they're a bit closer to straight up punkrock. All of their albums are great, including the reunion one from 2007.

@ Walter: about the emo-waves, this site might give you a clue:

http://www.fourfa.com/

Lifetime were great. I have Max to thank for introducing me to them iirc.

City Of Caterpillar - S/T

Hated officially released one full-length lp, the 2x7" ep, two album-length cassettes, and a 7" ep while they were still going. Tonie "Fucking Thief" Joy released a full-length lp and never listened to the test-pressing because he is a fucking moron, so it's at the wrong speed. Hated stuff was all self-produced, no Moulds in sight. Discography is coming and will blow the world away, but it's not coming on Troubleman. I may or may not be this M33d3r dude, but I sure didn't sing for the Hated. Did and do play a lot of bass.

rites of spring and embrace just sound like hardcore bands to me tbh

might be because 1st wave emo was hardcore. :)

The M33d3r person played bass, I mean. I don't know who I am or what I do.

Oh my golly

Feel bad about -ve comments now, but if it's any consolation, Hated got me in reading Rilke so props for that

TEXAS IS THE REASON

No prob. Hated people all still annoyed that the Joy-vandalized "What Was Behind" 12" is what most folks know.

what about that one Texas Is The Reason album?

Yes, definitely! Lots of people rep for the first EP, too, but I never really liked it. Do You Know Who You Are is classic, though.

Moss Icon was another band mentioned - their discography just got reissued.

― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), miércoles 11 de julio de 2012 3:29 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reunion show in nyc october 25th and lpr

i feel a lot of bands would probably qualify for this thread.

if I started posting like Mohinder and Angel Hair youtubes or whatever it would effectively ruin the thread right

― if you are a false nine don't entry (DJ Mencap), miércoles 11 de julio de 2012 5:16 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's funny because i'm only in here hoping that the *core end of the spectrum rears its head

*october 25th at lpr

City Of Caterpillar - S/T

!

i mean if we're already that far along in the timeline (and that far out in terms of genre) i will totally not feel bad for pulling a

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost

lol forgive my porous memory 3WU

City Of Caterpillar LP is good but I shd get round to offloading it given it seems to go for £30 or so easily enough and I've not played it in years

I think Saves the Day's Stay What You Are should be included, because it definitely is a prime example of where the "emo" thing went in the early 2000s. I hesitate bringing them up because I know how loathed they are, but I would argue that Dashboard Confessional's The Place You Have Come to Fear the Most should be a part of the canon. Not because its a good record, but because, again, its a pretty solid example of the genre's evolution over time. For a better Carraba related album though, maybe Further Seems Forever's The Moon is Down.

I also might toss out Bright Eyes' Letting Off the Happiness.

1985. What did you do when you were 16?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePxcBXsmuuI

nice!

1988, and more heard (and therefore ripped-off) at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6DjkIloPpA

Late '89, unreleased, commonly bootlegged, the best stuff we did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AevJDUQv8Mw

hey I remember that second song alright! the singing's not really my thing, but the music still stands up so kudos to that m33d3r guy

i'm embarrassed bc it seems v conventional + lame but after 15 min here's what i've got:

1. Brand New - Deja Entendu
2. Thursday - War All the Time
3. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most
4. Braid - Frame & Canvas
5. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
6. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
7. Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want to Be
8. Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux
9. The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good
10. Thursday - A City By the Light Divided
11. Coheed & Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth
12. The Academy Is… - Almost Here
13. A.F.I. - Sing the Sorrow
14. Pretty Girls Make Graves - Élan Vital
15. Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window
16. Cursive - The Ugly Organ
17. Bright Eyes - Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
18. Thrice - Artist in the Ambulance
19. Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life
20. blink-182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

28. my chemical romance: three cheers for sweet revenge ha i was right in chat :p

Mine (in progress) has plenty of those too. I'm so glad Bright Eyes counts!

I almost put leaving through the window on mine, and honestly I should have a motion city soundtrack record on there, probably even if it kills me

i can hear the argument that bright eyes isn't emo and i for some reason i wouldn't vote for i'm wide awake or digital urn however i feel like lifted was v much a part of 'emo conversation' when it came out

i mean i included desaparecidos bc they are oberst's straight up emo band but i'm not mad at including bright eyes

thought for a lol second about including seven's travels

for some reason i wouldn't vote for i'm wide awake or digital urn however i feel like lifted was v much a part of 'emo conversation' when it came out

These were my thoughts too. I remember writing a review of it for the emo section fake magazine I made in school...

My list would look similar to these, but my sleeper picks would be the One Last Wish record, which is secretly even better than the Rites of Spring LP, and that last Hotelier record, which feels more and more classic every month

oh yeah i considered both of those!

13. thursday: no devolucion

Totally the best Thursday album. Everyone says Full Collapse but it's not, it's this.

yes!!!!

I wouldn't say that I'm proud of this list (there are an awful lot of classics I've just never even listened to), but I do love it unconditionally.

1. Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
2. Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
3. Weezer - Pinkerton
4. Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade
5. The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
6. Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky
7. Dashboard Confessional - A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
8. Brand New - Deja Entendu
9. Fall Out Boy - Take This to Your Grave
10. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
11. The Movielife - Forty Hour Train Back To Penn
12. The Get-Up Kids - Guilt Show
13. Desaparecidos - Read Music/Speak Spanish
14. Straylight Run - Straylight Run
15. The Early November - The Room’s Too Cold
16. Chumped - Teenage Retirement
17. Sugarcult - Start Static
18. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
19. Rilo Kiley - Take Offs and Landings
20. Funeral For A Friend - Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation
21. Saves The Day - Can’t Slow Down
22. Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
23. Sunny Day Real Estate - The Rising Tide
24. Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down
25. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge
26. The Juliana Theory - Emotion Is Dead
27. The Academy Is… - Almost Here
28. Thursday - War All the Time
29. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
30. Senses Fail - From the Depths of Dreams
31. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most
32. New Found Glory - Sticks and Stones
33. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command
34. Paramore - Riot!
35. Panic! At the Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
36. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
37. Matchbook Romance - Stories and Alibis
38. The Used - The Used
39. Rites of Spring - Rites of Spring
40. The Get-Up Kids - Something To Write Home About

And if anyone is interested, playlist here

great list! reminded me that one of my favorite abrupt emo shapeshifts was from the first matchbook romance album to voices (a record i love a lot)

I was so invested in the Stories and Alibis sound that I really couldn't get into Voices when it came out. I'd probably like it a lot more now.

My favourite emo metamorphosis was Sunny Day Real Estate's move into weird emo-prog.

i spent a lot of time with the rising tide recently and what a massive record

i really like the guitar and drum sounds on this stuff.

mare vitalis by appleseed cast is probably my favorite in this genre. beautiful melodies, great sound.

Mare Vitalis has two of the best opening tracks of any emo album.

lol I was listening to clarity the other day and thought "wow the drum sound on this record rules"

My favourite emo metamorphosis was Sunny Day Real Estate's move into weird emo-prog.

How It Feels to Be Something On is my favourite emo-related album bar none.

many killer albums mentioned here

My favorite emo album which no one seems to acknowledge is an emo album is Juno's This Is the Way It Goes and Goes

i had never listened to the indian summer comp before that rs list and i regret it!

i do love how every cd and mp3 copy of this record was made by someone holding a microphone next to a turntable (i assume)

i forgot armor for sleep!

My favourite emo metamorphosis was Sunny Day Real Estate's move into weird emo-prog.

How It Feels to Be Something On is my favourite emo-related album bar none.

― Gavin, Leeds, Saturday, March 5, 2016 1:16 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just hearing this for the first time, loving it!

Cool! It really is a unique record I think.

9. the anniversary: designing a nervous breakdown
10. driver friendly: bury a dream

I gave these two from Brad's list a go over the weekend, had never heard either of them before, both great.

I eventually fell in love with Joan of Arc's A Portable Model of

I gave these two from Brad's list a go over the weekend, had never heard either of them before, both great.

Ha, I just came here to say essentially exactly this. Also had not heard any Jejune before. Listening now and dying. There is so much joy in this playlist.

My favorite part of ilx is getting recommendations like this

Another of my favorites, hopefully along these lines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx0P6Ef015I

I tried to make a top 40 over the weekend and kept getting sidetracked, I hope to post one eventually.

i forgot armor for sleep!

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Sunday, March 6, 2016 3:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would have a hard time picking between their first two albums. Always loved the loose concept of WTDWYAD.
favs off both albums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkJ-lKbdrR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sEptKoWMeM

i'm not one to be like "wow x album is y years old! wow now i too am old" but louder now being 10 years old nearly gets me there

That was very much my summer before uni album. So many aggressive seaside strolls...

i didn't put boys night out's trainwreck on my list upthread which was a huge mistake imo

emo's fantastic planet

Attention all bookmarkers: Are you aware of
This POLL Will Become the Anthem of Your EMO Voting Thread / You're Two Floors Down CAMPAIGNING in the Back Room.

question: did The Anniversary's "Designing A Nervous Breakdown" actually influence other bands? Or do I just think/wish it did/should've?

I heard the contemporary band Slow Mass' album 'On Watch' and was shocked how good it is--and how much it completed the thought of the sort of music I listened to when I was 16-19 and then thoroughly abandoned and left behind.

So it compelled me to listen again to the music I'd really loved back then (circa '96-'99) and I ended up making a mix that really surprised me. The title and artwork style come from an internet radio station I had from my dorm room my freshman year of college...

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/musicophilia_00_various_-_a-boy-his-pet-heart_1994-1999_cover-a.jpg?w=1024

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/musicophilia_00_various_-_a-boy-his-pet-heart_1994-1999_cover-b.jpg?w=1024

Various – ‘A Boy & His Pet Heart’
1994-1999

SIDE A

01 [00:00] For Carnation – “On the Swing” (‘Marshmallows’ 1996)
02 [02:00] Ida – “Tellings” (‘I Know About You’ 1996)
03 [06:20] Hum – “Stars” (‘You’d Prefer An Astronaut’ 1995)
04 [11:30] Everyone Asked About You – “Last Dance” (‘Let’s Be Enemies’ 1998)
05 [14:15] The Promise Ring – “Red & Blue Jeans” (‘Nothing Feels Good’ 1997)
06 [17:05] Cap’n Jazz – “Oh Messy Life” (‘Schmap’n Shmazz’ 1995)
07 [19:05] Don Caballero – “Room Temperature Suite” (‘What Burns Never Returns’ 1998)
08 [24:30] That Dog – “You Are Here” (‘That Dog’ 1996)
09 [29:00] Karate – “This, Plus Slow Song” (‘In Place of Real Insight’ 1997)

SIDE B

10 [31:15] Rainer Maria – “Breakfast of Champions” (‘Look Now Look Again’ 1999)
11 [34:45] Rodan – “Bible Silver Corner” (‘Rusty’ 1995)
12 [41:35] Red House Painters – “Summer Dress” (‘Ocean Beach’ 1995)
13 [44:25] Sunny Day Real Estate – “J’Nuh” (‘LP2’ 1995)
14 [49:15] Pedro The Lion – “Almost There” (‘Whole’ EP 1996)
15 [52:20] Low – “Don’t Understand” (‘Secret Name’ 1999)
16 [59:05] Versus – “Thera” (‘The Stars Are Insane’ 1994)
17 [63:50] Beekeeper – “Two Men” (‘Ostrich’ 1998)
18 [66:15] Jejune – “Regrets Are Unanswered Dreams” (‘This Afternoon’s Malady’ 1998)

[Total Time: 1:11:40]

Download/stream: https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2020/05/25/a-boy-and-his-pet-heart-1994-1999/

Whoa, that Slow Mass album is really good! Thanks for the recommendation.
Well recorded, good riffs/songwriting, really nice heart-wringing Low-y/Rainer Maria-y M/F harmonies--aspects of them also remind me a bit of Helms Alee in terms of contemporary bands coming at that sensibility more from the metal realm.

(This mix looks great too--was always at a very slight remove from late'-90s emo, but I still hold a good chunk of it close to the cardigan, har)

Yeah, the Slow Mass album really threw me for a loop. 1st, because it's a type of music I thought I didn't care about in the least (or at least, hadn't in 21 years); and 2nd, because it's a "revival" of a style, and yet, to my ears, it's honestly better than all but the very best "original" exemplars of that style, and as good as the best. As a sum-total album, I think it's probably the best post-hardcore/emo album I've heard.

https://slowmassmusic.bandcamp.com/album/on-watch

For 1992 this was pretty ahead of the curve:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2DTvKGZXaM

Seaweed is so primed for a Greatest Hits comp, their albums were all pretty uneven but there were at least 2 bangers on each release.

Can't say I expected to see City of Caterpillar reunite for a new album on Relapse in 2022...

https://cityofcaterpillar.bandcamp.com/album/mystic-sisters

https://thehardtimes.net/lists/we-put-on-a-sweater-vest-and-a-pair-of-thick-rimmed-glasses-to-rank-the-top-50-emo-songs-of-the-90s-while-we-looked-up-our-ex-from-high-school-on-facebook/

decently solid list imho

that is a pretty solid list!

thought this revive might be about Billy Corgan complaining about not being included in a book about emo:

losing my mind at the idea that Billy Corgan is mad Smashing Pumpkins are “left out” of emo history pic.twitter.com/CpM8Kalb0z

— Leor Galil (@imLeor) July 17, 2023

something for you emo-heads to chew on

Brooklynvegan 50 Best Punk & Emo Albums: 2015-2019
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/50-best-punk-emo-albums-2015-2019/

At the tail-end of 2019, we published a list of the 100 Best Punk & Emo Albums of the 2010s. Making a best-of-the-decade list at the end of a decade is standard practice but the timing does have a few drawbacks. How do you compare an album that’s just a few months old to albums you’ve lived with for most of the decade?

Now that we’re halfway into the next decade, we thought it’d be a good idea to look back on the 50 best punk & emo albums of the second half of the 2010s (2015-2019), the ones that are all now five to nine years old, like the ones from the first half of the 2010s were when we first made that list. As you’d probably expect, there are some albums near the top of this list that were also near the top of our original decade list, but there’s also so much that’s different about this list. Not every album reveals itself immediately (most don’t), and our perspective on the late 2010s continued to change and grow throughout the first half of the 2020s. This list includes stylistic departures that were divisive upon release but became growers over time, and it also includes albums by some now-widely-loved artists whose greatness became much more obvious throughout the early ’20s than it was in 2019. Albums themselves are set in stone once they come out, but impacts of albums are always evolving. Similarly, lists are helpful and fun tools but they’re also built to be updated and revisited. Most best-of-the-’90s lists that were created in 1999 probably didn’t include American Football and Duster. Best-of-the-’80s lists created in 1999 probably didn’t include Bleach. So on and so forth.

It says “punk & emo” in the headline, and for the purposes of this list, that includes punk, pop punk, emo, hardcore, post-hardcore, metalcore, ska, and various forms of punk/emo-adjacent music. Some of these albums could also be on a metal list, and others could also be on an indie rock list. Genre definitions can be just as subjective and debated as music taste.

Representing five years with 50 albums isn’t easy, and there were a lot of others I wished I could’ve included on this list but had to draw the line somewhere. (It’s also one album per artist, to make room for as many artists as possible.) I’m 100% sure that if I revisit the list in another five years, it’ll look different then too. As for the ranking, that would probably change if I revisited the list in another five weeks; at a certain point, the ranking just gets a little superfluous when you’re dealing with 50 albums that are all super important. As far as I’m concerned, lists like these aren’t about establishing a concrete canon; they’re about having a constant conversation.

Read on for my picks of the 50 best punk & emo albums of 2015-2019…

I had forgotten about that Fiddlehead record, it was really good. A lot on here I need to check out.

4. Paramore – After Laughter (2017)

do ppl really rate this one higher than the s/t? i remember being pretty disappointed at the time, might need to revisit

OMG i just realized that it was 2015-2019, not 2010-2019 IGNORE ME

some people do prefer after laughter to the s/t tho, they’re out there. i get it