Is this thing on?

#emo100

Previously on the Top 100 emo songs of all time…….

100 – Reggie and the full effect – Thanx for stayin

99 – Roadside Monument – Sunken Anchor

98 – Boilermaker – Slow Down

97 – Hundred reasons – If I could

96 – Jets to Brazil – Chinatown

95 – Coping – F For now

94 – Inside – Ray Brower

93 – Basement – Grayscale

92 – The Jazz June – Viva La speed metal

91 – Everyone Everywhere – I feel fine by Everyone Everywhere

90 – Hunter Gatherer – Low standards for high fives

89 – Football, etc. – Safety

88 – Race Car Riot – Raincheck

87 – Taking Back Sunday – Bike scene

86 – Leiah – Tiglio

85 – Brandtson – Still life

84 – Polar Bear Club – Bottled wind

83 – Starmarket – Losing track

82 – Sunny Day Real Estate – Guitar and video games

81 – Grade – Stolen bikes ride faster

80 – Bob Tilton – September

79 – The Autumn Year – Little lost words

78 – Koufax – Going to happen

77 – Wavelets – Julio won’t get out of the car

76 – The Get Up Kids – Forgive and Forget

75 – Hot Rod Circuit - At nature’s mercy

74 – The Appleseed Cast – Steps and numbers

73 – Stapleton – International departures

72 – New End Original – Lukewarm

71 – Hundred Hands – A Replay

To read more about these tracks click HERE for no’s 100-91, HERE for no’s 90-81 and HERE for no’s 80-71. And for some background as to why I’m doing this list click HERE

70 – Knapsack – Cellophane

 Track one from their first album ‘Silver Sweepstakes’, Knapsack create a sound so warm it feels like summer. Released in 1995 and sounding like it was from no other time period, ‘Cellophane’ is packed with charm and dirty guitars full of feedback. The chorus is full on lo-fi/emo/grunge magic, I could easily listen to it all day. Knapsack went on to release 2 more albums, after they broke up singer/guitarist Blair Shehan formed the Jealous Sound.

69 – Elliott – Dionysus Burning

 For me this is the best track from their best album. ‘Dionysus Burning’ is taken from Elliott’s debut full length ‘U.S. Songs’ and highlights Chris Higdon’s beautiful voice at it’s most glorious. Switching from the brooding/slow building verse into a killer guitar riff and beyond. Great band.

68 – The Lapse – We Must Move Backwards To Progress

 Forming from the ashes of the legendary band The Van Pelt, The Lapse released the stonkingly good album ‘The Betrayal!’ in 1998. At the end of a record full of art rock emo weirdness and some of the best indie guitar playing your likely to hear lies ‘We must move backwards to progress’ and boy does this song get in your head. I defy you to listen to it without then repeating “WE MUST MOVE BACKWARDS TO PROGRESS” non stop to anyone and everyone you see. If you have read my blog before then you are probably aware of the time I had a small altercation with the singer Chris Leo, if you haven’t then click HERE to read it.

67 – Owls – Everyone Is My Friend

 The members of Owls have, in various guises, can take full responsibilty for inventing and then re-inventing emo as we know it and influencing too many bands to name in the process. From the full on brilliance of Cap’n Jazz to the more abstract and interesting Joan Of Arc and onto the more straightforward and mature Owls, nothing these people have done has been less than genius. ‘Everyone is my friend’ is an uptempo, summery, toe tapping song of absolute joy!!

66 – Suis La Lune – Quiet, Pull The Strings!

 When I was standing patiently waiting for Pianos Become The Teeth to come on stage last year in Margate, little did I know I was about to be blown away by another band altogether. Suis La Lune were a completely unexpected and completely welcome surprise. They can sublimely shift from the twinkly beautiful to the powerfully loud in a matter of seconds. They were recently added to the Topshelf Records roster so expect big things from these beautiful gents with a penchant for a good moustache.

65 – Sunday’s Best – Winter Owned

 Taken from the ‘Poised to break’ album, I discovered this song on the Crank! records sampler ‘Stay tuned for the holidays’ and fell in love with the first listen. It is (nearly) 3 minutes of pop perfection, it makes me wanna smile, dance, do all sorts of crazy fun stuff all at once. Fantastically good.

64 – CSTVT – Hiccups

 Any song from ‘The Echo and the Light’ could have easily been included in this list such is the quality of the record, but that would have been unfair to the other bands so I made a decision to just use my favourite, ‘Hiccups’. When the song reaches the part where it slows down and introduces the multiple vocals in the background it is blissfull, the song then bulds back up before fading out into a post rock dream. Wonderful!!!

63 – Vitreous Humor – Sharin’ Stone

 Without releasing a proper full length album Vitreous Humor still made their mark on ‘emo’ history. They did release an EP, a couple of 7 inches and a posthumous compilation album called ‘Posthumous’, which ‘Sharin’ Stone’ is taken from. It’s a curious mix of a discordant bass riff on the verse which builds into a rocking, guitar driven chorus. And they were on Crank! which is shorthand for “they’re awesome”

62 – Beezewax – Dead end kids

 It seems sad now but I remember how excited I was when I got my first mobile phone that had the compose feature which allowed you to create your own ringtone. It doesn’t seem very much now, but, in the day it was a deal breaker. The first ringtone I ever programmed in to mine was the main riff from ‘Dead end kids’ by Norways finest, Beezewax, it sounded great and gave me immense pleasure. If you’ve heard the song then you’ll know why, it is pure indiemo pop at its greatest and this isn’t even their best song.

61 – Death Cab For Cutie – A Movie Script Ending

If 1991 was the year that punk broke, then 2002 was the year that emo broke. I’m basing this on by the fact the Reading festival that year was an emo boy’s dream come true and has to be one of the best weekends of my life. But I will always regret one thing, I forgot to go and see Death Cab For Cutie. They were first on in the NME tent on the sunday and I just plain forgot to go and see them. At the time I was ok about it but now the album they were touring at the time ‘The Photo Album’ is one of my favourite records. I kick myself to think I could have been standing mere feet away from Ben Gibbard et all playing this gorgeous song on a sunny sunday afternoon. Oh well, nevermind, I can still listen to the song and pretend I was there, and it’s a pretty damn good song.

Again, thanks for reading. I’m loving all the comments and the fact people are sharing this list is blowing my mind. Big cheers all round. Next 10 songs to be posted very soon x

UPDATE!! The next part (60-51) can be viewed HERE

I’ve updated the spotify playlist as best I can, click the link below for that.

Emo 100 (100-61)