As we said in our list of the 50 best albums of 2023, it wasn’t easy to narrow this year’s many, many great albums down to 50, so we thought it’d be a good idea to shine a light...
As we said in our list of the 50 best albums of 2023, it wasn’t easy to narrow this year’s many, many great albums down to 50, so we thought it’d be a good idea to shine a light on some other releases that we think deserve more love. Specifically, here’s a list of 10 great emo albums from 2023 that you may (or may not) have missed. Emo’s “fifth wave” — as it’s been called — is in full swing, and the genre’s current generation is very musically diverse. Whether you like noodly Midwest-style emo, catchy emo-pop, or artsy, indie rock-leaning emo, we think you’ll find something to like here. The list is heavy on emo’s latest generation, but there are some longer-running lifer bands in there, too.
Read more: 11 alt icons of TV and film that shaped a generation of emos
Here’s the list, presented alphabetically.
awakebutstillinbed – chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger (Tiny Engines)
The long-awaited follow-up to awakebutstillinbed‘s 2018 LP, what people call low self?-?esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you, finally arrived this year, and it was well worth the wait. Shannon Taylor has one of those once-in-a-generation voices; she can go from a whisper to a scream at the drop of a hat, and she brings such intense passion and emotion to these songs that it’s impossible to listen and not feel something. The album is raw and intimate, a genuine replication of what it sounds like to see this band play live, and the arrangements are remarkable. Multiple songs hover around the six/seven/eight-minute mark with angular passages that would make late-period Fugazi proud, and the result is truly mesmerizing.
Equipment – Alt. Account (Klepto Phase)
With Alt. Account, Ohio’s Equipment have crafted one of the most endearing emo albums of the year. Singer/guitarist Nick Zander offers up witty observations on everything from dating a more traditionally successful partner to internet shit-talk throughout a collection of songs that ranges from slowcore to math rock to Weezer worship. In classic DIY emo fashion, it’s raw and scrappy yet bursting with ambition, hyper personal yet widely relatable.
Fireworks – Higher Lonely Power (Funeral Plant Collective)
Fireworks need no introduction, but you “may have missed” this album simply because it came out on New Year’s Day and the band did very little press and touring behind it. It’s their first full-length in eight years, after the band seemingly went on hiatus in 2015 but actually just retreated from the public eye and started secretly working on this record. It’s nothing like their early pop-punk days; instead, it’s an art-rock masterwork that brings to mind albums like Radiohead’s Kid A, Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz, and Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, injected with the energy of a band who spent a full decade in the punk world. (For a “more emo” comparison, it’s also similar to Foxing’s Nearer My God.) Lurching rhythms and eerie sounds are set against lyrical subjects, like Christian trauma and mortality. For those who love when the emo/pop-punk band take a big artistic swing, you can’t miss out on Higher Lonely Power.
Home Is Where – the whaler (Wax Bodega)
If you went to, or were at least excited about, Foxing and the Hotelier’s The Albatross/Home, Like Noplace Is There 10th anniversary tour this year, then the new band you need in your life is Home Is Where. In addition to contributing a cover of “Bit By A Dead Bee Pt. 1” to Foxing’s Albatross covers album, Home Is Where released the whaler, which feels like a worthy and spiritual successor to those breakthrough Foxing and Hotelier albums from a decade ago. The band owe as much (or more) to Neutral Milk Hotel as they do to emo and screamo, and they combine their unique musical perspective with subject matter that feels made for these times. They call it a “concept record about getting used to things getting worse,” and damn if that isn’t what life in 2023 feels like.
Kerosene Heights – Southeast of Somewhere (No Sleep)
If you miss the days of late 2000s/early 2010s emo revival, you need Kerosene Heights‘ Southeast of Somewhere in your life. Not only did it come out on a label that released a lot of that stuff back then (No Sleep), but it also perfectly taps 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 can’t quite hit, they’re tearing through the noisy lo-fi exterior, and they’re giving off that intangible feeling that the best emo always does.
Magazine Beach – Constant Springtime (Take This To Heart)
What kind of emo do you prefer? Fast-paced melodic hardcore? Noodly Midwest-style stuff? Emo with big gang vocal singalongs? Somber folky emo? Stuff that leans a little bit more indie pop? If you answered yes to all of the above, this is the album for you. Magazine Beach‘s debut LP, Constant Springtime, does all of that, and the band bring these separate pieces together for something much greater than the sum of its parts.
Origami Angel – The Brightest Days (Counter Intuitive)
Origami Angel have become pioneers and leaders of emo’s new weird generation, and it’s because no idea is too crazy for them. Should their 2021 sophomore LP be a wide-ranging double album that acts as fifth-wave emo’s answer to the Beatles’ White Album? Yeah. Should they put out two EPs in 2022, one being hardcore and another being jangle pop? Sure, why not? This year, they dropped The Brightest Days, which they call a “mixtape” because of how stylistically all over the place it is. It bounces between Midwest emo, bossa nova, ska, indie pop, metalcore, Beach Boys homages, and more, with lyrics that range from lighthearted jabs at New Jersey to political protest music, and Gami make it all work.
saturdays at your place – always cloudy EP (No Sleep)
With just a six-song EP, Kalamazoo, Michigan’s saturdays at your place left a big mark this year. These songs range from the youthful quirk of Modern Baseball to the 1975’s sharp dance-rock to Algernon Cadwallader-worthy guitars to the heavy, grungy bliss of Balance and Composure, and SAYP do it all so well and make it all their own. This is one of those EPs that feels just as major as an album, and it makes us very excited to hear what comes out of their next full-length.
Spanish Love Songs – No Joy (Pure Noise)
Spanish Love Songs celebrated 10 years as a band in 2023, and they also released their best album yet. They hail from LA, but their fusion of heartland rock, pop punk, and emo sounds like an extremely Philly combo of the War On Drugs, the Wonder Years, and the Menzingers. In his shaky, emotive voice, Dylan Slocum sings about death, depression, and making it through, with highly personal moments that culminate in hooks that beg to be sung along to.
Teenage Halloween – Till You Return (Don Giovanni)
Teenage Halloween made this album with producer (and Hop Along/Algernon Cadwallader guitarist) Joe Reinhart, who’s worked on classics like Joyce Manor’s Never Hungover Again and Modern Baseball’s Holy Ghost, and if you like those records, you’ll probably like this one too. Similar to those 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 Till You Return finds bassist Tricia Marshall bringing more of her great indie pop-punk gems to the table, too.
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