As we mentioned in our record of the 50 finest albums of 2023, it wasn’t simple to slender this yr’s many, many nice albums right down to 50, so we thought it’d be a good suggestion to shine a lightweight on another releases that we predict deserve extra love. Particularly, right here’s a listing of 10 nice emo albums from 2023 that you could be (or could not) have missed. Emo’s “fifth wave” — because it’s been known as — is in full swing, and the style’s present era could be very musically various. Whether or not you want noodly Midwest-style emo, catchy emo-pop, or artsy, indie rock-leaning emo, we predict you’ll discover one thing to love right here. The record is heavy on emo’s newest era, however there are some longer-running lifer bands in there, too.
Learn extra: 11 alt icons of TV and movie that formed a era of emos
Right here’s the record, introduced alphabetically.
awakebutstillinbed – chaos takes the wheel and i’m a passenger (Tiny Engines)
The long-awaited follow-up to awakebutstillinbed‘s 2018 LP, what individuals name low self-esteem is actually simply seeing your self the way in which that different individuals see you, lastly arrived this yr, and it was effectively well worth the wait. Shannon Taylor has a kind of once-in-a-generation voices; she will be able to go from a whisper to a scream on the drop of a hat, and he or she brings such intense ardour and emotion to those songs that it’s inconceivable to pay attention and never really feel one thing. The album is uncooked and intimate, a real replication of what it sounds prefer to see this band play dwell, and the preparations are outstanding. A number of songs hover across the six/seven/eight-minute mark with angular passages that will make late-period Fugazi proud, and the result’s really mesmerizing.
Tools – Alt. Account (Klepto Part)
With Alt. Account, Ohio’s Tools have crafted probably the most endearing emo albums of the yr. Singer/guitarist Nick Zander presents up witty observations on every part from relationship a extra historically profitable companion to web shit-talk all through a set of songs that ranges from slowcore to math rock to Weezer worship. In traditional DIY emo style, it’s uncooked and scrappy but bursting with ambition, hyper private but extensively relatable.
Fireworks – Larger Lonely Energy (Funeral Plant Collective)
Fireworks want no introduction, however you “could have missed” this album just because it got here out on New Yr’s Day and the band did little or no press and touring behind it. It’s their first full-length in eight years, after the band seemingly went on hiatus in 2015 however truly simply retreated from the general public eye and began secretly engaged on this file. It’s nothing like their early pop-punk days; as an alternative, it’s an art-rock masterwork that brings to thoughts albums like Radiohead’s Child A, Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz, and Arcade Fireplace’s Neon Bible, injected with the vitality of a band who spent a full decade within the punk world. (For a “extra emo” comparability, it’s additionally much like Foxing’s Nearer My God.) Lurching rhythms and eerie sounds are set towards lyrical topics, like Christian trauma and mortality. For individuals who love when the emo/pop-punk band take a giant creative swing, you’ll be able to’t miss out on Larger Lonely Energy.
Residence Is The place – the whaler (Wax Bodega)
In case you went to, or have been a minimum of enthusiastic about, Foxing and the Hotelier’s The Albatross/Residence, Like Noplace Is There tenth anniversary tour this yr, then the brand new band you want in your life is Residence Is The place. Along with contributing a canopy of “Bit By A Lifeless Bee Pt. 1” to Foxing’s Albatross covers album, Residence Is The place launched the whaler, which seems like a worthy and religious successor to these breakthrough Foxing and Hotelier albums from a decade in the past. The band owe as a lot (or extra) to Impartial Milk Resort as they do to emo and screamo, and so they mix their distinctive musical perspective with material that feels made for these instances. They name it a “idea file about getting used to issues getting worse,” and rattling if that isn’t what life in 2023 seems like.
Kerosene Heights – Southeast of Someplace (No Sleep)
In case you miss the times of late 2000s/early 2010s emo revival, you want Kerosene Heights‘ Southeast of Someplace in your life. Not solely did it come out on a label that launched a number of that stuff again then (No Sleep), nevertheless it additionally completely faucets into the math-rock noodling, strained scream-singing, and pop-punky hooks that make this subset of emo such a thrill. They’re reaching for the notes they’ll’t fairly hit, they’re tearing by the noisy lo-fi exterior, and so they’re giving off that intangible feeling that the perfect emo at all times does.
Journal Seashore – Fixed Springtime (Take This To Coronary heart)
What sort of emo do you favor? Quick-paced melodic hardcore? Noodly Midwest-style stuff? Emo with massive gang vocal singalongs? Somber folky emo? Stuff that leans somewhat bit extra indie pop? In case you answered sure to the entire above, that is the album for you. Journal Seashore‘s debut LP, Fixed Springtime, does all of that, and the band deliver these separate items collectively for one thing a lot higher than the sum of its elements.
Origami Angel – The Brightest Days (Counter Intuitive)
Origami Angel have change into pioneers and leaders of emo’s new bizarre era, and it’s as a result of no thought is simply too loopy for them. Ought to their 2021 sophomore LP be a wide-ranging double album that acts as fifth-wave emo’s reply to the Beatles’ White Album? Yeah. Ought to they put out two EPs in 2022, one being hardcore and one other being jangle pop? Positive, why not? This yr, they dropped The Brightest Days, which they name a “mixtape” due to how stylistically all over it’s. It bounces between Midwest emo, bossa nova, ska, indie pop, metalcore, Seashore Boys homages, and extra, with lyrics that vary from lighthearted jabs at New Jersey to political protest music, and Gami make all of it work.
saturdays at your home – always cloudy EP (No Sleep)
With only a six-song EP, Kalamazoo, Michigan’s saturdays at your home left a giant mark this yr. These songs vary from the youthful quirk of Fashionable Baseball to the 1975’s sharp dance-rock to Algernon Cadwallader-worthy guitars to the heavy, grungy bliss of Stability and Composure, and SAYP do all of it so effectively and make all of it their very own. That is a kind of EPs that feels simply as main as an album, and it makes us very excited to listen to what comes out of their subsequent full-length.
Spanish Love Songs – No Pleasure (Pure Noise)
Spanish Love Songs celebrated 10 years as a band in 2023, and so they additionally launched their finest album but. They hail from LA, however their fusion of heartland rock, pop punk, and emo feels like an especially Philly combo of the Struggle On Medicine, the Surprise Years, and the Menzingers. In his shaky, emotive voice, Dylan Slocum sings about demise, despair, and making it by, with extremely private moments that culminate in hooks that beg to be sung alongside to.
Teenage Halloween – Until You Return (Don Giovanni)
Teenage Halloween made this album with producer (and Hop Alongside/Algernon Cadwallader guitarist) Joe Reinhart, who’s labored on classics like Joyce Manor’s By no means Hungover Once more and Fashionable Baseball’s Holy Ghost, and in case you like these information, you’ll in all probability like this one too. Much like these bands, it throws punk, indie rock, and emo in a blender and turns them into explosive singalongs. Luk Henderiks is a magnetic singer, yeller, and lyricist, and Until You Return finds bassist Tricia Marshall bringing extra of her nice indie pop-punk gems to the desk, too.
