Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate)
What It Takes To Move Forward
Count Your Lucky Stars; 2009
One of my more frequent musical objects of affection over the course of 2009 has been the quiet, steady resurgence of second-wave emo. I came of musical age in the mid-‘90s, listening to Braid, Dear Ephesus, and Pedro The Lion – acts with sad sounds that ran counter to the bitter, angry sounds of grunge and were passionate tangents off the jangly indie rock of acts like Pavement. I needed the intense emotional cocktails that such bands offered my ears, and it certainly helped that they were creating music that challenged an adolescent palette that had only tasted from the wells of ‘80s pop country and Christian pop-rock. The Midwestern United States remains a hotbed and hive of keen emo acumen, since it seems that never-ending stretches of cornfields are a breeding ground for intelligent, expressive rock tunes.
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