The term ’emo’ seems to have been tagged to any band that have deep and meaningful lyrics. Shit, isn’t all music supposed to be emotional? But it doesn’t matter what genre the critics and the press throw The Get Up Kids into, the fact is pure and simple: their 1999 offering “Something To Write Home About” does exactly what it says on the tin. Get out your pen and paper, because this album is amazing.
Who cares if this is emo, punk, whatever. It’s plain brilliant. All soaring melodies and whirling keyboards wrapped around crunching guitars and those deep and meaningful lyrics curtousey of Matt Pryor‘s heartfelt vocals. If you like the Ataris, and Kris Roe’s tales of a broken heart, then you’ll love this.
Opener ‘Holiday’ sets the tone for this album of lost love and heartbreak. ‘Action and Action‘ and ‘Red Letter Day’ are both standouts, and closer ‘I’ll Catch You’ is a real tear-jerker, but to be fair there is not a single bad track. I’ve had this CD for 18 months, and it still sounds as fresh as the day I bought it.
Yes it is well produced, and lyrically it is hardly ground-breaking (every band seems to be singing about girls nowadays), but The Get Up Kids have produced an album that, from start-to-finish, leads the ’emo’ genre by some distance. Anyone with an ear for a melody should own this album.
Paul Savage