The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About (1999)
The Get Up Kids are one of the reasons why bands like Fall Out Boy and All Time Low exist. The Get Up Kids are also one of the best indie pop bands of the 90s. This may sound like a contradiction, but try to stay with me here.
I'm not going to go into a history lesson on what "emo" is, where and when the term originated or the evolution of the music that the term described. For that, you can go here. However one may use the term, if I use the word "emo" in this review, I am referring to the sounds of 90s emo (err... 90s midwestern emo).
Back to the topic on hand. 1999's Something to Write Home About is one of the last great albums of the 90's emo movement, back before emo was primarily about the fashion. All 12 tracks are about girls, wanting them, losing them or both. It is a tad overkill, but the opposite gender is a very popular subject to write songs about. Nearly every song is also very chord progression based, with a steady drum and bass to keep rhythm with just a hint of piano and/or keyboard layered on top. Maybe the Get Up Kids aren't going to win any awards for writing any Kid A-esque tunes, but at the same time, if you want to hear that, why listen to emo in the first place?
The problem with modern day emo is that a lot of bands blame the girl for messing up the singer. They always say things like "it's all your fault" or something and the songs are a way to find revenge on this demon hellspawn who messed up their life so badly. Not the Get Up Kids though. Yes, they are upset at the women who broke their hearts, but not to the point where Glassjaw takes it. The Get Up Kids are more reflective of their own actions and are more willing to accept the blame. This sounds kind of depressing and it is. But at the same time, this is what makes this album so endearing and easy to relate to.
On the track Valentine, lead songwriter Matt Pryor quietly asks "if you're sorry why wage war?" which I think is a nice little summary of every relationship gone sour. Because who hasn't felt that way before about someone who keeps fighting with you even when trying to apologize and make up?
It's not always "hey, we're both to blame" though. In Action & Action (the album's sole single), Pryor accuses "every mistake that I make, I couldn't have made without you" which is more of a backhanded admittance to screwing up than anything else. But hey, no matter how mature you try to be about some exes, when you've been wronged, you've been wronged and feelings can sometimes be hard to control. This is even more prevalent in the track Red Letter Day when Pryor is more or less screaming "how could you do this to me?!"
The highlight of the album is the latter-side track, "I'm a Loner Dottie, A Rebel..." which is a Pee-Wee's Big Adventure reference for those of you who don't get it. One of the more energetic and anthemic tracks (right next to the lone Jim Suptic contribution, Ten Minutes) and I'm not sure if my words can do it justice, so I found it on YouTube so you can judge for yourself.
(the track itself is just over three minutes long, this video has about two and a half minutes of extra silence).
The album's final track is probably the happiest (lyrically) of them all. Rather than thinking back on past relationships gone awry, Pryor takes an unexpected turn and begins crooning about a girl who he wouldn't "trade anything" for because she's "his everything." He also drops a Jawbreaker reference so bonus points for that.
All-in-all, there isn't anything overly unique about Something to Write Home About, especially since the wave of copycats that rose up after its release (speaking of which, Jim Suptic had a thing or two to say about that). But the Get Up Kids did a damn fine job at executed this tried and true formula. And in the end, you can be as technical as you want, but if you're missing the heart and soul then what's the point?
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