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Rolling Stone ranks the top 40 emo albums of all-time

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Pinkerton and Black Parade are nothing alike.

Black parade is a mainstream rock record that has tons of stadium rock influences with a bunch of guys in costumes. Pinkerton is an awkward dude talking about his awkwardness over weird rock in the most personal way possible.

They don't relate at all. And one is emo and the other isn't.
You described why Black Parade is one of my favorite albums of all time and why Pinkerton is one of my least. I can relate to Black Parade and Pinkerton might as well have been made by aliens. Can't and don't even want to relate to the awkward horribleness that the songwriting goes at lengths to establish.

I really like the quote from Cuomo when interviewed by Entertainment Weekly
It’s like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself.
And I know people have grown to REALLY love Pinkerton's self reflection themes over time, this quote nails perfectly as to why I despise the album. It's awkward and I definitely wouldn't ever want to party or even spend time with any person like that. I hate awkwardness. I don't find it endearing, insightful, or "yeah man, I've felt that way sometimes too".

So there's totally a lot of discussion about genres going on here, and while I'm not keen on splitting hairs, I can understand it. I don't let genre classifications impact my opinion on the music.
 

ohkay

Member
Pinkerton, Through Being Cool, Deja Entendu, Four Minute Mile, and Tell All Your Friends?

I'm ok with the albums they chose for these bands
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Why isn't Modest Mouse "This is a Long Drive Without Anything to Think About" considered emo? I love the album to pieces but it seems just as angsty, angry, and toned down as most of the stuff in the top 40 that I'm familiar with, and it was hugely influential.
 
Amanda Woodward?
Anomie?
pg. 99?
City of Caterpillar?
Saetia?
Envy?
La Quiete?
I Hate Myself?
Toru Okada?
Hot Cross?

All these bands are fantastic and can easily replace some of those... very questionable choices.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Funny that some of these are considered emo, but some unexpected albums on that list.

I'm actually impressed that Thursday almost broke top 10, they were really underrated back in the day.

Also always glad to see Say Anything on a list. That was a great album.
 
1ST WAVE EMO - late 80s/early 90s "emotional" hardcore that still had a political element to it (Rites of Spring and other DC groups) as well as grunge-influence groups like SDRE (i reference grunge because they do the quiet LOUD quiet thing)

2ND WAVE EMO - late 90s groups that have a lo-fi, heavily melodic pop-punk sound and lyrical content focusing on relationships with girls, absolutely no political content (Get Up Kids, early JEW, Promise Ring). in promo photos their look is "dorky hipster". i think a lot of post-hardcore bands like ATDI were included in this wave.

3RD WAVE EMO - more of a glossy pop-punk and/or post-hardcore sound (Thursday, TBS, Brand New) with the same unrequited love lyrics/themes. their look is "dorky hipster with tattoos and an expensive haircut".

4TH WAVE EMO - mid-aughts when any band on Absolute Punk/Alt Press could be considered "emo". FOB before they became "pop", Paramore before they became "alt rock" etc. if you were white, strained your voice when you sang while guitars chugged behind you you were in the club. peak aesthetic.

ok i'm tired of this but i think it's pretty accurate...
 
How is AFI - Sing the Sorrow not on this list?

AFI has always been associated with punk/hardcore


Amanda Woodward?
Anomie?
pg. 99?
City of Caterpillar?
Saetia?
Envy?
La Quiete?
I Hate Myself?
Toru Okada?
Hot Cross?

All these bands are fantastic and can easily replace some of those... very questionable choices.

Now we're really starting to stretch the limits of the label. Saetia and Hot Cross but not Off Minor ;)
 

gutshot

Member
1ST WAVE EMO - late 80s/early 90s "emotional" hardcore that still had a political element to it (Rites of Spring and other DC groups) as well as grunge-influence groups like SDRE (i reference grunge because they do the quiet LOUD quiet thing)

2ND WAVE EMO - late 90s groups that have a lo-fi, heavily melodic pop-punk sound and lyrical content focusing on relationships with girls, absolutely no political content (Get Up Kids, early JEW, Promise Ring). in promo photos their look is "dorky hipster". i think a lot of post-hardcore bands like ATDI were included in this wave.

3RD WAVE EMO - more of a glossy pop-punk and/or post-hardcore sound (Thursday, TBS, Brand New) with the same unrequited love lyrics/themes. their look is "dorky hipster with tattoos and an expensive haircut".

4TH WAVE EMO - mid-aughts when any band on Absolute Punk/Alt Press could be considered "emo". FOB before they became "pop", Paramore before they became "alt rock" etc.

ok i'm tired of this but i think it's pretty accurate...

Yeah, I think that about covers it. I was definitely more into 2nd and 3rd wave emo, but I respect the 1st wave stuff. 4th wave, for me, was really more about just some fun songs I'd hear on the radio or buy as one-off singles, never really got full albums of that stuff.
 

rexor0717

Member
Glad to see Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in the top 10. I didn't really listen to emo that much, but I did like that album quite a bit, and I love "I'm Not Ok".
 

kiguel182

Member
You described why Black Parade is one of my favorite albums of all time and why Pinkerton is one of my least. I can relate to Black Parade and Pinkerton might as well have been made by aliens. Can't and don't even want to relate to the awkward horribleness that the songwriting goes at lengths to establish.

I really like the quote from Cuomo when interviewed by Entertainment Weekly

And I know people have grown to REALLY love Pinkerton's self reflection themes over time, this quote nails perfectly as to why I despise the album. It's awkward and I definitely wouldn't ever want to party or even spend time with any person like that. I hate awkwardness. I don't find it endearing, insightful, or "yeah man, I've felt that way sometimes too".

So there's totally a lot of discussion about genres going on here, and while I'm not keen on splitting hairs, I can understand it. I don't let genre classifications impact my opinion on the music.

I'm not saying one is better than the other.

I understand why Pinkerton is not the most conformable record to listen to but that's kinda why I like it. Is just Rivers exposing himself and sharing it with the world. I might relate to somethings and cringe at others but it all works for me.
 

kiguel182

Member
I think we should kill the "emo" label. It's trash and poisoned at this point.

Go listen to The Hotelier.

That is all there needs to be said about this list in the end.
 
So, by "emo" in this case, they mean 2nd-3rd wave emo/post-hardcore/3rd wave pop punk/emo pop?

They're including all waves, looking at the list.

You've also gotta class the emo revival bands as its own wave too. There's a sizeable catalog of early 2010s stuff.
 
I'm not saying one is better than the other.

I understand why Pinkerton is not the most conformable record to listen to but that's kinda why I like it. Is just Rivers exposing himself and sharing it with the world. I might relate to somethings and cringe at others but it all works for me.
Oh yeah, definitely. I really liked that about your post. It explained the appeal of both albums in a straight forward way. I just look at one of those descriptions as high praise and the other as a condemnation. Just my personal internalization of your post :p
 

olympia

Member
:lolol I like you.

Oh my bad, I just glanced at the top 10. I'm glad that some bands made it on there. There are some questionable choices.

Yeah I guess, but it's also weird that they have Paramore, My Chemical Romance, The Used and Fall Out Boy lol6

They should replace all of those with just Skram bands if they're going to include one.

It's true. There are some choices with some serious cred and then they fuck it up with Coheed and Cambria. I wouldn't be mad if they replaced them with skram.
 
Oh never mind, I just glanced at the top 10. I'm glad that some bands made it on there. There are some questionable choices.



It's true. There are some choices with some serious cred and then they fuck it up with Coheed and Cambria.

They got a legit top 8 then just shit the bed after that.
I'd personally put American Football at #2 but that's just my personal preference!

The hell is skram? I always knew those bands to be "screamo" before that labeled started being used for stuff like Circa Survive and Thrice.

Skram is Screamo, but for the actual screamo bands and not The Used
 

olympia

Member
They got a legit top 8 then just shit the bed after that.
I'd personally put American Football at #2 but that's just my personal preference!

Honestly before I clicked, I thought that they'd make a Brand New album number one. Dear You should be higher for me personally :)

where the FUCK is TDAGARIM

There are three types of brand new fans

the ones that like it all

the ones that like YFW and Deja

the ones that like Deja and Devil.

nobody likes Daisy all that much even though it's a really good album
 

Gutek

Member
Clarity, Full Collapse and Diary are on the list, so I'm quite happy. Get Up Kids need to be higher though.
 

Slime

Banned
This list is actually a pretty amusing summary of what's been considered "emo" at some point or another from the Dischord era onward.

-legit emo and early post-hardcore (Embrace, Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, Dag Nasty)

-90s post-hardcore (Indian Summer, Drive Like Jehu, At the Drive-In, Orchid, Braid)

-90s indie/emo (Mineral, Cap'n Jazz, The Jazz June, Texas Is the Reason, American Football)

-popular late 90s angsty pop-punk and indie (The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Cursive, Jimmy Eat World)

-popular early 00s angsty pop-punk and post-hardcore (Saves the Day, Thursday, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday)

-pop music that came along and ruined it for everybody (Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, The Used)

-stuff that's not really emo but has always popularly considered as such (Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Weezer, Coheed and Cambria)

Kinda cool to see some of these albums on a list in 2016, especially since the term has basically come to mean "weird goths with angular haircuts who listen to shitty pop-punk music" since the mid-00s. There's a bunch of stuff missing and a ton of shit I wouldn't put anywhere near a list like this, but if it gets more people to listen to Mineral and Moss Icon, I'm glad.
 

Lender

Member
Glad to see Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in the top 10. I didn't really listen to emo that much, but I did like that album quite a bit, and I love "I'm Not Ok".

I hate to be THAT guy, but I don't consider MCR emo. Hell, a lot of bands in that list don't fall in the emo category. It does have some cool albums though, but a lot of those bands don't deserve to be in a 'greatest emo albums' list.

PS: I also enjoy MCR from time to time, so I'm not a hater. ;) Although I do prefer their debut album.
 

Dogg448

Member
Couple of albums on this list that I would take off but I love that Frame & Canvas by Braid is so high and good to see some Into it. Over it. on the list. This is a semi solid list and will accept it.
 
I always love it when people complain about genre descriptions.

Yeah, there's a lot of good albums on that list. Should have more Promise Ring, but I'm biased since they were local to me.
 
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