Rolling Stone's top 40 emo albums (10-6)
10: My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (2004, Reprise)
I wasn’t really sure what to expect here, because I avoided this shit like the plague when it came out. It’s a lot harder to pin down than I thought it would be. One thing that fascinates me about third wave emo is how abruptly it sprung up. The genre was seemingly one thing in 2002, and then all of a sudden, these bands who sounded similar to each other but radically different to what was happening before just exploded out of nowhere. I hear a fair bit of Thursday and AFI in this record’s DNA, but I think it’s obvious MCR and many of their contemporaries liked Queen more than they were ever truly sold on punk. This particular album is a little more “Stone Cold Crazy” than the operatic direction on their later stuff (which my girlfriend made me listen to after we put Three Cheers on in the car). Still, guitarist Ray Toro rips a solo on here that sounds like he’s trying to channel Bryan May, not Brian Baker. There’s also a melodeath-y riff on this record, which might suggest MCR had their ear to the underground metalcore scene of the time too.
9: Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree (3005, Island)
This was the epitome of “gay emo screamo music” I dismissed as a Led Zeppelin shirt-wearing teenager. I absolutely could not stomach the vibe of this as a kid, and some of the lyrics — paired with the long ironic song titles — still give me douche chills. I’ve certainly come around to the pop-rock mastery of “Dance Dance” and “Sugar We’re Going Down”, however, so I was excited to revisit this record for the first time in a decade and discover some choice deep cuts. I was kinda disappointed. Those two tracks are far and away the hits on the album, as evidenced by the fact that they’re the only ones with real song titles. The rest of the record is okay, but it’s not my style and I’m disappointed FOB couldn’t consistently deliver on the promise of their smash hits.
8: Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001, DreamWorks)
JEW followed up Clarity by ditching a lot of the twinkle/drive dichotomy and leaning into simpler, pop-focused songwriting. Bleed American feels like an early acolyte of Pinkerton with the big chords and crooning “ooohs” for backup vocals. It’s idiosyncratic compared to both the emo and alt-rock landscapes of the time. These songs would make sense soundtracking a turn of the century coming of age comedy, but they would probably play during sad scenes. They’re smarter and more saccharine than countless flash-in-the-pan hits from bands like Treble Charger and Wheatus that occupied a similar space in 2001’s public consciousness. At the same time, many of JEW’s underground contemporaries had broken up and started using calculus to write their new band’s songs. This record stood alone at the edge of a new, poppier frontier for emo, but without the “top hat and guyliner” melodrama of what immediately followed it. Even when bands from the 2010’s like Make Do and Mend tried to rip this off, they couldn’t find the secret sauce. It’s one of a kind.
7: Cap’n Jazz - Shmapp’n Schmazz (Man With Gun, 1995)
This record’s sensibility is a wild departure from the super serious, hyper polished major label efforts in this segment so far. It’s unabashedly playful and intentionally obtuse, switching skitzophrenically between tempos and time signatures on a roller-coaster ride of energetic punk rock. Still, I can understand why this never hit me as a kid. I don’t think there’s a single hummable moment on the whole record. Vocalist Tim Kinesella shout-sings what seems like random gibberish while the guitars fight a perpetual battle over who can play the weirdest chord. I think this would be fun live, and I wouldn’t be averse to revisiting it again soon. It’s not making my regular rotation though.
6: American Football - American Football (LP1) (1999, Polyvinyl)
I consider this record to be emo’s genre defining masterpiece. Experiencing it on an October morning drive is almost ascendant. The music takes the shape of falling yellow leaves in the cool, crisp air. Cap’n Jazz may have started emo’s flirtation with jazz music, but American Football brought it to full realization, complete with a trumpet and a Wurlitzer piano. Mike Kinesella took his brother’s reverence for open chords and off-kilter time signatures, repackaging them in a more digestible and emotionally affecting way. The intricate yet eminently catchy main riff in “Never Meant” is the platonic ideal of emo guitar playing. Those two bars have spawned multiple genres and generations of imitators. Listening to the bass progressions made me wistful for band practices of my youth in the early 2010’s. This record is sad and heavy, but the emotions are more immediate than the nostalgia it stirs in me. The lyrics conjure stinging heartbreak, set against some of the prettiest music ever written.