The 100 Greatest Emo Songs of All Time

Only three or so songs in but it gets a capable nod from me when I see Copeland's "When Paula Sparks" make the cut.

 

I love that one of my favorite albums from just last year made it in. Origami Angel. Been in constant rotation. The rest of the list continued on.

 

I already don't recognize an embarrassing amount of the artists/songs listed here. Looking forward to setting aside some time for a deep dive!

 

Good list, but I'm just gonna say it -- Brand New should've been on this.

 

no doubt.

 

Nah.

 

I feel like they handled it perfectly. They did include Brand New -- not on the list but in the (reasonably extensive) introduction. Brand New was a major part of emo for a long while, and that is acknowledged. The writers are basically saying they recognise the band's importance and influence to the genre, but will not actively promote its music by including it on a list of the best songs.

 

A Favor House Atlantic too low

 

I wish there were more random late 90s / early 00s shoutouts (like Further Seems Forever, Acceptance, The Early November, The Juliana Theory, etc) but it's a really fun list altogether.

 

I've been visiting this site now and again for their TV show reviews, mainly back when the Leftovers was current. I really enjoy them, especially the end of the reviews, "Under The Hood" section.

 

There are so many great songs on this and a bunch that I need to look up because I’m completely unfamiliar with them. I’ve always thought that “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is one of the best emo songs of all time, even though I wouldn’t put the band in that category. This is a really cool list.

 

A big part of the "Konstantine" blurb reckons with it as being about a relationship between McMahon and an underage girl...but unless I'm mistaken, Andrew McMahon would have been recently 18 when that song came out in its earliest version (and very likely under 18 when he wrote it). It just seems like a weirdly accusatory piece of writing to attach to a song in retrospect without acknowledging how young the bandmembers were when they recorded it.

 

Should have left the culture vulture SJW shit out of this article and just focused on the music.

 

Transatlantic Foe by At The Drive In should be higher on the list....great fucking song.

 

The lack of Anberlin is sad. I kept waiting for "Paperthin Hymn" to show up.

Otherwise, super well-written and fun read. I need to check a lot of these out.

 

My thoughts exactly. They wrote about Brand New in a way that recognized them as possibly one of the best bands of this generation while explaining clearly and thoughtfully why they couldn't include them on the list. Thought it was pretty perfect.

Yeah this part I didn't get either. Also is it ever even explicitly said someone is "underage" in this story? He just says "Damn it you're so young". You can be 18/19/20 and still be considered too young to tour the country with a rock band haha

 

It just felt like they were reading it as if he wrote it now (which would definitely be weird) versus a literal teenager writing it. The song reads like a teenage confession of love. That's part of what made it so resonant to a lot of people.

 

I love this list so much.

 

Do it. There’s a lot of good songs here.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

Hey, one of these lists that doesn’t have Artist in the Ambulance on it! Haha

 

Comparing Jesse Lacey to R Kelly is a stretch. But hey, it’s this guys article and if he wants to keep them off, that’s his prerogative.

 

don martin three should have been at #1.

 

Oh, ok.