Read more: 20 greatest Hopeless Records bands

It’s all written with a director’s eye for suspense, leading up to a satisfying conclusion. Campbell has long yearned for the shared days of watching a TV finale simultaneously with thousands of others — and is reinvigorating the idea. Last night, he debuted the new songs at Asbury Park — the place where “Smoking Rooms” begins — and livestreamed the event so fans could witness the final track’s reveal at the same time, regardless of time zone. In the words of Campbell, every album’s a season, and every song’s an episode, so In Lieu of Flowers’ closing number could very well be the “series finale.”

Here, he unravels the story and intense meaning behind every song on the album.

“Smoking Rooms”

Where the story ended on the previous record was that Ann’s brother-in-law had passed away, so Aaron had left the band to go be home with his sister and his nephew and just generally be a positive and helpful force in the household. But because of that, he wasn’t able to tour and had to quit the band. So, this album opens with the solo touring that I was doing on that record because I do the whole thing in character. What we did was I went on tour for the record, and I did it solo because, canonically, Aaron has left the band. Every night I would say, “I’m here because I made a promise to be here, but it’s not the same without the band. I’m happy that you’re here, and I’m happy I get to play for you, but it has been deflating.” The song had to start solo because the tour started solo. Aaron’s sister, Catherine, joins the band in Asbury for this solo show, and after they play a song together, Catherine motions, and the rest of the Roaring Twenties rejoined the band live in front of everyone, and it’s a big surprise reveal at the show, so we wanted to try to find a way to sonically mirror that. At that moment in the song, the band returns both physically, and then musically, there’s a return to full-band form.

“Roman Candles”

Canonically, it’s right after “Smoking Rooms.” Everything is chronological and locks to real time, and the events of “Smoking Rooms” are in January of 2020. The events of “Roman Candles” are in February and March of 2020. The band is getting excited and booking full-band tour dates again and rehearsing, but there’s this undercurrent of this flu, this coronavirus happening, and you start to see it more and more in the news. Aaron’s mom works at the hospital, and she starts to see cases. It’s almost this ironic moment of the band saying, “We’re back together — nothing can stop us now.” And that’s March of 2020. Then the record scratches, and obviously you have a global pandemic.

“Paying Bills at the End of the World”

Because of the way we portray Aaron onstage, everything that happens in the world is also happening to him, and on this one, it’s through the pandemic. You’re seeing it through the eyes of someone who had everything they were planning to do fall to pieces and whose family is struggling to make ends meet because their income sources have dried up. He’s looking for work and finds a job at his old friend’s dad’s company doing driveways and garage doors on Long Island and is living this mundane life where he’s struggling with the fiscal realities of the pandemic. We’re now broke and we live in America, so our healthcare is not afforded to us unless you’re getting it through work or paying on the marketplace.

It’s this anxiety that I know a lot of people felt, which is, “Not only do I not want to get sick and potentially die, but I also don’t want to get sick because my family can’t afford it.” At the end of that song — because I look at this project as a lot like television, and I think of every record as a season and every song as an episode — you get your first end-of-episode cliffhanger, which is that Aaron runs into Sam, who’s an old friend from high school while working on their driveway.

“Monongahela Park”

Next is the two of them linking up and going to catch up at a bar on Long Island later in the pandemic. It’s both a reprisal of their past relationship, and it serves to catalyze your understanding of Aaron’s fear of intimacy. On the first of these three LPs, the project opens with Aaron going through a divorce, and now 10 years later, he’s never been vulnerable around anybody. Sam is pretty obviously flirting with him. They put their hand on his knee, and at the end of the song when Aaron is dropping Sam off, they lean in, and Aaron leans away because he is so afraid of vulnerability, so afraid of intimacy, so afraid of opening himself up to get hurt again. But he sees the look in their eyes, and the realization in that moment is your fear of being vulnerable, of being hurt, can actually cause hurt. You’ve actually made this person that you care about feel bad about themselves because you’ve rejected them, not because of anything about them, but because of something about you — and that starts a spiral on the album.

“Alone At St. Luke’s”

You start to see some foreshadowing early in the project and the early records. Aaron has wavered back and forth with drinking and obviously is a problem drinker, but has been able to bury it for periods of time and compartmentalize it. You see it on “Monongahela Park” where Aaron is drinking seltzer at the bar. He’s chosen not to be drinking. I think that that’s because he recognizes himself as a problem drinker, recognizes himself as someone who does not handle it well, especially when he’s drinking out of sadness. When we get to “Alone At St. Luke’s,” it is the first time the band has gone back on tour since the pandemic, and they’re on tour in the U.K., and they’re having fun. He starts to drink again under the pretense that this is not sadness drinking, this is not trauma drinking — this is celebratory drinking. He convinces himself that is somehow different and better and OK.

Then the whole band — and this actually happened on the U.K. tour — except for him gets COVID, and this four years in the making full band reunion tour is suddenly shot directly in the kneecap, and it goes to just Aaron alone. Now all of that joy that the beginning of the song carries suddenly stops when the band leaves, and it becomes loneliness and sadness again. And he continues drinking. You see the drinking take a turn from celebratory drinking directly back into sadness drinking and problem drinking.

“Whiplash”

On “Whiplash,” you see him back home. We’ve gone from being on tour in front of all these people and feeling, when the band was there at least, powerful and important and validated. All of these people came to these shows to see us play, to sing these songs, and then having to immediately go right back to your crappy job fixing garage doors and repaving driveways. The reason for that is, and you find out on there, is that the record label has been putting off the decision whether or not to exercise the band’s option as to whether or not they’re going to release the next record.

That puts the band in a career holding pattern. They can’t really tour because they don’t have any new songs. They can’t record a record because the label has not decided whether or not they want to do it, and because the label hasn’t decided that, they’re not free to go elsewhere. The shock to the system of going from standing on stage in front of crowds of hundreds of people to being back working at this dead-end job and the fact that he’s drinking again starts to spiral into a depression and exacerbates the problems that were already there. Earlier I said he had been able to compartmentalize his drinking. That compartmentalization is breaking down and starts to bleed into other parts of his life, and then at work, he breaks the hand he needs to play guitar. Now not only is he in a holding pattern — he’s in a holding pattern and physically incapable of playing anyway. 

“Spitting in the Wind”

[With] “Spitting in the Wind,” the band is still in this holding pattern with the label, and they say, “Fuck it, now that your hand is healed, we’re going to fly to LA and play a show, and we’re going to show them.” So the Roaring Twenties, in both real life and on this record, go to LA and play this place called The Peppermint Club. The record label is really there in the front row. Aaron is drinking, and he’s drinking more than he normally would at a show because he’s nervous — not just because the label is there, but because he’s seeing his friend Rosa, who you learn about on the previous album for the first time in years and the first time that Rosa’s seeing him play with this band. The nerves are getting to him, and he’s onstage playing and starts to feel his hand cramping up from having broken it and then looks out at the crowd and sees the label almost not paying attention and just laughing and drinking.

This resentment builds up in him, fueled of course by the alcohol where he’s thinking, “Man, here I am trying to convince these people that I’m worthy of their time and energy, and I’m doing that with this hand that’s in pain because I broke it at this job that I wouldn’t have had to have had anyway if they had just made up their mind.” And it explodes, as it did in real life. Aaron is screaming at the record label in front of the whole crowd, and the band is embarrassed and angry at him about it, and the song ends with him getting in a fight with the band and storming out of the back of the venue.

“I’m an Albatross”

That brings us into the next track. Sometimes there’s days or weeks or months between these songs — “Spitting into the Wind” into “I’m an Albatross” is an immediate five minutes later kind of thing. I think it is the first moment that he sees that he could be worthy of redemption. He storms out, doesn’t answer phone calls for days after that, and goes on a bender, and it mirrors the first album’s bender purposefully. It’s in harmony with that. On the first album where he was able to pull himself out of his spiral, this time, it’s not him that pulls him out — it’s his sister calling him and saying, “Hey, I believe that you can get better, and I don’t want to see this happen to you.” He flies home and understands that he has a problem, like hallmarks of addiction in his behavior, and asks if his family and his friends can help him and get him into a rehab facility.

“Runnin’ Out of Excuses”

That brings you to “Runnin’ Out of Excuses,” which is the act of getting treatment. The entire song is in this facility, and it’s him doing the actual work to get better. I think that’s a lot of the message of the project — that if we have these unresolved traumas and these unresolved issues, just trying to ignore them is not gonna make them go away. Maybe you compartmentalize it, and maybe you could hold it there for a certain amount of time, but it will find a way to metastasize in a different and maybe more malevolent way the longer you leave it untreated, the longer you go without doing the actual work. This song is a reflection of him doing the actual work to get better. I had a great call with my friend Bobby, and we added Bobby’s name into the record for this, but Bobby talked me through his time in rehab and helped me understand the intricacies of it and the details and really the internal experience that he had, and that allowed me to write from that perspective in that way.

“In Lieu of Flowers”

That moves into the next stage of the redemption arc, which is “In Lieu of Flowers.” He’s done the work, but now he has to go out and seek forgiveness and show that the lessons he’s learned are going to stick. I have it broken into three verses. There’s a verse where he goes to Sam and apologizes for moving away from their advances and talks about how he’s been afraid of being intimate for the last decade. You see him, at the end of that verse, reveal himself in a way that he hasn’t this entire 10-year span. In the second verse, he is patching it up with the band by calling the label and begging for another chance and having them come out to New York to see them play a show there and showing the label that, “I put it back together, and I am worthy of your time, and my band is worthy of your time” because by destroying the deal in “Spitting in the Wind,” it’s not like he just fucks up his life. He fucks up his whole band’s life, which includes his sister and then, by extension, his nephew, who in the last record he’s caring for in a very fatherly, paternal way after his brother-in-law dies.

The third verse sees him apologizing to his nephew, Colin, and saying, “I understand that what you need right now is space, but I am gonna be here when you’re ready to talk it through.” Then [with] the choruses of that song, what you get are the band and Sam and Catherine and Colin and his mom and everyone in his life rallying around and saying, “We’re with you. If you’re willing to do the work, then we’re willing to stand here with you and help you with it.”

“Dead Leaves”

That’s where it gets left going into “Dead Leaves,” which I am going to decline talking about because it is the big surprise for people that have followed the band through three albums. I’m calling it a season finale, but there’s always a chance that anything could be the “series finale.” I never know if I’m going to write another record. I have to feel inspired to do that, so I’m going to leave “Dead Leaves” unspoken about to say that you need to listen to it to find out how the story ends. I’m so obsessive with this idea of finales and television and the way that it used to end when I was a kid, and you couldn’t just watch it on Netflix. It wasn’t just available when the rest of the episodes were. You had to sit there and be ready for it at 7 o’clock on your couch on a Wednesday. There’s something about the communal feeling of everyone watching something end at the same time that there’s a value in that that has been lost to streaming.

Read more: Sad Summer Festival is growing beyond emo nostalgia

Mayday Parade’s Alex Garcia says:

For most of my adult life, I’ve associated the summer with music festivals; their open-air venues, the mix of tour bus exhaust and heat radiating off asphalt, and, of course, hearing my favorite music at twilight, lit by the flicker of fireflies – Sad Summer epitomizes this experience. It also serves as a unifying force in our music scene, a place for every emo kid to gather around, connect with fellow fans, and truly be themselves. With this in mind, it is a deep honor to close Sad Summer; the music we’ve poured our hearts and souls into becoming an indelible part of those warm summer nights, where friends and memories are made.

The Maine’s John O’Callaghan adds:

A lot can change in four summers. And for me, a lot has. But a constant throughout the peaks and valleys of the last four summers has been my love for playing music loudly, seeing old faces and making new amigos. This marks the 5th anniversary of the Sad Summer Festival, and I couldn’t dream up a better place to rip gigs and see smiling people lose their heads. But the real question at hand is…Corn dogs or nah?

The fest includes stops in Sacramento, Santa Ana, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and more. Tickets go on sale March 8, with presale sign-ups starting March 1. See all the dates below.

Sad Summer Fest 2024
Friday, July 12, 2024 Sacramento, CA The Backyard%$
Saturday, July 13, 2024 Santa Ana, CA Observatory Festival Grounds%$
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 Denver, CO Mission Ballroom%
Friday, July 19, 2024 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom%$
Saturday, July 20, 2024 Chicago, IL Salt Shed Outdoor+$
Sunday, July 21, 2024 Pontiac, MI Crofoot Festival Grounds+$
Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE Outdoor+^
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Columbus, OH KEMBA Live! Outdoor+^
Friday, July 26, 2024 Atlanta, GA Coca-Cola Roxy+^
Saturday, July 27, 2024 Clearwater, FL The Sound at Coachman Park+^
Monday, July 29, 2024 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion+^
Thursday, August 1, 2024 New York, NY The Rooftop at Pier 17+^
Saturday, August 3, 2024 Worcester, MA Palladium Outdoor+^
Sunday, August 4, 2024 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony Summer Stage+^
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 Buffalo, NY Terminal B at the Outer Harbor+^
Thursday, August 8, 2024 Philadelphia, PA Highmark Skyline Stage+^
Friday, August 9, 2024 Columbia, MD Chrysalis Stage+^

%Like Roses
+Diva Bleach
$The Summer Set
^Hot Milk

The new album picks up where Routine Maintenance left off, starting from the solo tours that Dan went on shortly after its release — onstage, he talked about leaving the band to care for his grieving sister Catherine and nephew Colin, but that solo touring felt like shit. The band soon got back together —  as documented on their Live From Asbury Park album recorded over the course of two December 2019 shows.

In the interceding years, Aaron is forced to finally tend to the wounds he’s ignored for over a decade, and that brings us to In Lieu of Flowers.

It’s a triumphant kind of melancholy that colors this entire record as Aaron learns that things don’t go away just because you ignore them. Its message is driven home thanks to the 16-piece band that helped bring it to life with guitar, accordion, keys, banjo, pedal steel, trumpets, trombone, saxophone, cello, and violin.

Read more: 20 greatest Hopeless Records bands

The first single is the anthemic, country-tinged title track, which uses that 16-piece band to great effect. Watch the accompanying video below.

Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties will celebrate the release of In Lieu of Flowers at Asbury Park’s Asbury Lanes on April 11, which is also with Lake Saint Daniel and Never Better Baby. Tickets are on sale now, and for those who can’t make it in person, it’ll also stream live.

In Lieu of Flowers tracklist
1. “Smoking Rooms”
2. “Roman Candles”
3. “Paying Bills at the End of the World”
4. “Monogahela Park”
5. “Alone at St. Luke’s”
6. “Whiplash”
7. “Spitting in the Wind”
8. “I’m an Albatross”
9. “Runnin’ Out of Excuses”
10. “In Lieu of Flowers”
11. “Dead Leaves”

Read more: 20 greatest Fueled By Ramen bands

In celebration of the philanthropic label’s 30th birthday this year, we’ve drawn together the 20 greatest Hopeless signings, both past and present. 

Avenged Sevenfold

Try to imagine Avenged Sevenfold without their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet or their seminal sophomore album, Waking the Fallen. Having trouble? That speaks for the impact of A7X’s Hopeless output all the way back in 2001, a much simpler time for the metalcore scene and owners of infinitely baggy jeans. Listeners were introduced to the talents of Synyster Gates and Johnny Christ to the tune of “Unholy Confessions” and “I Won’t See You Tonight,” bracing fans for their now-traditional screaming guitar solos to frame their lyrical bangers. Avenged Sevenfold’s stint under the Hopeless umbrella may have been criminally brief but ultimately gave the promising Cali outfit a chance to make a giant leap into their bright future.

NOAHFINNCE

No offense, but if you’ve not yet discovered the musical wisdom of influencer-turned-pop-punk-upstart NOAHFINNCE, you need to get out more. Multitalented, energetic and mob-handed with a sharp tongue and an ear for a catchy hook, the British rising talent signed to Hopeless Records in 2020 and has since released two EPs charged with quickfire jibes on modern life, love and everything in between. The future of pop punk is safe in the hands of NOAHFINNCE and Hopeless’ eye for the genre’s next landmark artists.

Zeph

Bedroom alt-pop fueled by young adult angst has never sounded quite as bittersweet as it does in the hands of one-woman powerhouse Zephani Jong, or Zeph for short. One of Hopeless’ freshest signings, the Korean-American sensation well known for her hard-hitting lyrics that give listeners pause for thought at every turn joined the label in March and promises a moving new era judging by her latest single “like everyone else.” Listeners can expect a wild ride of emotions that may be uncomfortable to hear but nevertheless deserve a platform, soundtracked by the dulcet tones of Zeph’s vocal range.

Waterparks

In 2019, pop-punk sensations Waterparks sought the perfect outlet for a change of tact, bringing painfully self-aware lyricism to the table amid saccharine, electro-pop-infused singalongs. A simultaneous bold shift from their signature pop-punk jams but also a perfect transition toward their musical maturity as an outfit, Hopeless Records gave their 2019 album, FANDOM, a soapbox to freely express itself. The success of the venture proved that their sound progression was not only predicted but welcomed by listeners who also needed self-critical anthems to belt out in the car on a hot summer’s day. Even though their partnership was short-lived, as they only stuck with Hopeless for one record, Waterparks made their ultimate mission statement loud and clear.

New Found Glory

New Found Glory’s shift to Hopeless in 2014 in time for their eighth studio album, Resurrection, gifted the outfit with a chance to start again. A member reshuffle placed Chad Gilbert on rhythm guitars as well as lead, allowing for a more consistent tone on songs like “Selfless” and “Ready & Willing,” establishing a new status quo that would survive until NFG’s final Hopeless album, December’s Here. The Hopeless era gave the genre mainstays a golden opportunity to prove themselves all over again, and it paid off spectacularly.

Scene Queen

The TikTok generation needed a rebellious icon to call out the scene around them with an acid tongue, but it could never fully prepare itself enough for the storming presence of Scene Queen, the brutally honest outlet for songwriter Hannah Collins. Creating her own genre of self-branded “bimbocore” to explain the juxtaposition between her ultra-feminine aesthetics and relentless metalcore instrumentals, Scene Queen delights in challenging the scene’s deep-rooted issues through contagious heavy singalongs that you’ll hear on your For You Page all day long.

Neck Deep

Some partnerships are meant to be, particularly if they come together to create four phenomenal pop-punk records within a decade and consequently fire a Welsh band from the obscurity of the nonexistent Wrexham punk scene right up into the stratosphere. Neck Deep have enjoyed a fairytale journey through the ranks as payback for their hard work in crafting endlessly contagious summer anthems, standing to this day as a testament to Hopeless Records’ talent-picking flair.

Thrice

The tricky relationship between artist and sophomore record held true for Thrice, having received numerous rejections to release 2002’s The Illusion of Safety due to its unpredictable sound, varying from frenetic melodic hardcore to self-reflective post-hardcore. Luckily for the band, Hopeless imprint Sub City Records took a chance and consequently enabled the now-legendary emo trendsetters to unleash songs like “Deadbolt” upon an unsuspecting world grabbing its skinny jeans and studded belts in preparation for a breakthrough.

Pinkshift

Visceral punk instrumentals and gloriously slick, grunge-esque vocals meet in No Man’s Land at the hands of Pinkshift, Baltimore’s answer to No Doubt with a refreshing 2023 tinge. Scooped up by Hopeless just in time to drop their debut full-length, Love Me Forever, this trio of friends are looking to shake up the scene with teeth-baring, confrontational jams that sound as much fun to create as they are to hear. Pinkshift have their brightest days ahead of them with the continued support of a label synonymous with punk discoveries that push the boundaries of a genre designed for reinvention.

The Used

With their fifth record, Vulnerable, in 2012, emo mainstays the Used began fusing experimental electronic elements into their signature venomous and gloriously heavy anthems as if they always belonged there. Leaving the safety of Reprise Records for a new start with Hopeless, the transition into their newfound approach appeared pretty seamless. For the next three earworm-inducing eras, the band called Hopeless Records their home and produced some of the most emotionally stirring, evocative albums of their long career, from the confrontational Vulnerable and the politically enraged Imaginary Enemy to the grieving The Canyon.

illuminati hotties

illuminati hotties is newer to the Hopeless Records roster. The first release through the label was second studio album, Let Me Do One More, in 2021 which allowed the LA indie set to announce themselves to the mainstream. What started as an outlet for former production-engineer-turned-vocalist Sarah Tudzin’s talents soon became a completely unpredictable combination of punk, indie and whatever Tudzin feels like on any given day. illuminati hotties are a true aural experience that defies a large label name to encapsulate their success, and are still with Hopeless Records now.

DE’WAYNE

In a badass world, alternative music needs an equally badass representative for 2023. Case in point: DE’WAYNE. His slick combination of organized hip-hop chaos and reckless punk abandon has crafted relentlessly contagious singalongs that have earned the Hopeless seal of approval and consequently garnered the hype he fully deserves. Living his best life under the Hopeless umbrella since his debut album, STAINS, DE’WAYNE’s genre-fluid approach brings back echoes of nü metal’s glory days when the two genres coexisted harmoniously across the mainstream market. There is hope that the scene can rejuvenate its relationship with the polar opposite genre, and that hope falls into the hands of one Texas-born future icon.

Stand Atlantic

When you find a label that understands your goals, your journey toward them and how you plan on getting there, hold onto them. Stand Atlantic have settled neatly into the Hopeless family as if they always belonged there, signing for their debut full-length, Skinny Dipping, in 2018 and staying out well into their third album, F.E.A.R., last year. Distributing their own flavor of pop punk with blends of electronic twinkles, their tracks are worthy of endless replays, led by the versatile tones of vocalist Bonnie Fraser. The only way is up for the Sydney crew. 

Sum 41

Sum 41’s back catalog may well be the definition of All Killer No Filler, but the latest piece in the Ontario band’s jigsaw was a signing to Hopeless just in time for their 2016 album, 13 Voices. Introducing what was once a daunting step into the unknown for the noughties trendsetters, the crowd-funded effort 13 Voices also paved the way for a subtle fragility in Deryck Whibley’s lyricism to reflect his own health revelations while taking a bold step away from their pop-punk roots toward a heavier metal sound. Ever since, Sum 41 have consistently followed their musical instincts to the bitter end.

Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday’s innate reliability to produce an album chock-full of belters, earworms and tracks that arrogantly refuse to age has carried them long into their 25-year career. It comes as no surprise that their debut appearance in the Hopeless family was no different, bringing 2011’s Happiness Is as an opportunity to remind the world around them just why TBS are the alternative household name you can trust. Their second Hopeless outing, 2016’s Tidal Wave, would be founding guitarist Eddie Reyes’ last with the Long Island outfit and subsequently made a fitting end of an era.

PVRIS

PVRIS have shifted to the Cali label in time for their fourth album, EVERGREEN, to be released this July. Dominating the alternative scene since their 2014 debut album, White Noise, demonstrated their heavy chops, their sound has comfortably evolved into a theatrical form of electro-pop rock that fully showcases the complexity and versatility of frontwoman Lynn Gunn as a performer, songwriter and vocalist. The latest singles from EVERGREEN, “ANIMAL” and “GODDESS,” suggest that listeners are in for a wild ride with PVRIS this year. 

The Wonder Years

If you thought your favorite pop-punk bands would eventually outgrow their adolescent anxieties and youthful despairs, the Wonder Years have matured and grown into their own sound while still retaining the fist-clenching angst from their debut. Over a decade under the Hopeless umbrella since their third studio album has enabled the Wonder Years to truly explore their own identities both as a group and as individual artists. Signing with the label for 2011’s Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing and remaining with Hopeless ever since, the band have found the perfect outlet for their emotional grievances across five gut-wrenching albums.

Tonight Alive

Despite the musical future of Tonight Alive remaining largely uncertain, their signing to Hopeless for their latest album, Underworld, in 2018 supplied the world with their newfound artistic approach to their traditional alternative-rock sound. Never taking the most obvious path through the industry, the Sydney outfit branched into an empowering new era with the help of Hopeless. Although Underworld would prove to close a chapter of their history with the departure of founding lead guitarist Whak Taahi, and it may seem like this fourth album may be their last, the Australian rockers produced a fittingly beautiful end to a band that brought familial togetherness to every stage they have graced.

Silverstein

Victory Records’ loss is inevitably Hopeless’ gain, and the same goes for Silverstein back in 2011 on the cusp of releasing their fifth post-hardcore triumph, Rescue. It’s impossible to imagine this emo-forging outfit without songs like “Massachusetts” and “Burning Hearts.” Not to mention, the unexpected hit of the entire Short Songs album changed the way we consume the genre’s output altogether. For their dedication to their stylistic endeavors, Silverstein will always deserve to be up there with the emo trinity, as they’re masters of creating devastatingly catchy scream-alongs and heartbreak anthems that hit your feelings like no other.

We Are The In Crowd 

Without the resounding success of their partnership with Hopeless Records, it’s hard to imagine if We Are The In Crowd would ever have emerged from their local Poughkeepsie, New York scene, let alone become a huge name in their brief time together. What began as a MySpace post declaring that a former band member had hacked and deleted their page’s contacts and content later forged a bond with the minds behind Hopeless and would lead to releasing both of the outfit’s albums under the label. Although their last release dropped back in 2014 and their 2016 hiatus broke in 2019, the chance of new WATIC music is low but never zero.

Williams and Youssef say it was when they rounded out their lineup and added Sean McCall on guitar, Ryan Cullen on bass, and Chris Kearney on drums that they really became what people know as Sweet Pill. Together, Sweet Pill is crafting a love letter to the Philly music scene and its community through their music — which is exactly what they aim to share with the rest of the world, show by show. 

Read more: Militarie Gun makes genre-bending hardcore that is constantly evolving

In May 2022, the band released their first LP Where the Heart Is, a 10-track record full of emo anthems that fuse hardcore with pop sensibilities. Their title track takes math rock elements and blends them with strong melodic hardcore guitar riffs and punchy lyrics — confidently introducing the band to the world through their freshman effort. 

You don’t have to look any further than the album’s cover art to see the impact Philly has had on the group. “The painter [who did the album art] was my neighbor in South Philly. During quarantine when I used to hang out on my roof, he would be out there on this roof painting,” Williams says. “I would play my guitar and he’d always tell me I should write a record. I was like, ‘I did,’ and sent it to him.”

Little did Williams know: His next-door neighbor was artist Kerry Dunn, a successful portraitist whose award-winning work has been exhibited across the country for over three decades. Through neighborly camaraderie and a shared love of art and music, Sweet Pill and Dunn collaborated to create a portrait for Where the Heart Is that has been captivating prospective listeners since the album’s release. 

“The album art helped a lot with people randomly listening to us,” Youssef says of the eye-catching image of her own likeness. After fans were reeled in by the art, they found that Sweet Pill’s music speaks for itself, and kept coming back for more. “All it took was somebody to share it with somebody.” 

Luckily for Sweet Pill, one of those “somebodies” happened to be none other than Jordan Dreyer of the beloved post-hardcore band La Dispute. In September and October 2022, Sweet Pill joined fellow opener Pictoria Vark for the North American leg of La Dispute’s tour celebrating the delayed 10 year anniversary of their album Wildlife.

“We found out maybe two or three weeks into the tour that the singer of La Dispute is the one who found us and who pitched us for the tour,” Williams says. “It wasn’t a booking agent that recommended us or someone who was trying to do us a favor — our music was received well enough on the internet that someone like him found it.”

For Sweet Pill, the Wildlife anniversary tour was their biggest one yet. “I had to get a passport so we could play our two shows in Canada,” Kearney says. “Even being on the west coast was huge. I’ve never been to California at all so being able to play shows and get out there because of the music we create has been awesome.” 

In Philly, Sweet Pill has played everywhere from the skate park to the streets outside a brewery. Touring on such a large scale for the first time, the band who’s used to playing such lively shows in Philly’s DIY punk scene couldn’t help but notice the differences between crowds across the US and Canada. 

“At first, I was a little thrown off that people were just standing still to our set,” Williams says. “It took me a show or two to realize that it’s actually more meaningful that they are not moving around and that they’re just paying attention and listening.”

Even in less rowdy environments, the band and their listeners seem to bring a bit of that Philly energy to stages across the tour. It’s not uncommon to hear the band or their fans screaming in support of the Philadelphia Eagles, and Philly in general by extension, during a Sweet Pill show.

“We like yelling ‘Go Birds!’” McCall says.

“Nobody really cares about sports in our band, but it’s part of the charm,” Youssef says, with McCall chiming in that it’s “like Shalom!” Or as Kearney describes, “Like Shalom: Hello,’ ‘Goodbye,’ ‘Go fuck yourself.’”  

Whether it’s through hometown pride or meeting fans after shows, the band emphasizes how important it is to them that they feel connected with the people who come out to see them perform. “One person came up to me and was having a really bad week. He was shaking and very nervous and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Like, what can I do?’” Youssef says. “I gave him a hug and it was a very long one. It was new to me to experience that.”

It’s a testament to how much their melodic hardcore music resonates, and a feeling Sweet Pill knows all too well, having looked up to their favorite bands just the same when they were younger.

“I knew when that person went home they were gonna think about it the same way I did when I met Paramore for like 30 seconds. I didn’t shower for a week!” she says. “I’m not trying to have a big head about it, but these lyrics and this music is out there and it creates feelings for people. That’s the whole point, for me, at least.”

Sweet Pill are also taking the communal aspect of the Philly DIY scene with them on the road. When the first date of the Las Vegas pop-punk music festival When We Were Young was canceled due to inclement weather in October 2022, many of the bands slated to play immediately began scouring Vegas for venues to host impromptu sideshows. But because of the way the festival grounds were organized, it wasn’t easy to get their gear off their tour buses and to the gig. Serendipitously, enter Sweet Pill, who were in town for the festival while in between tour dates with La Dispute, and had transportation and easily accessible gear. 

“Because all these bands had their buses parked in such a way at the festival grounds, their gear was hard to move out,” Youssef explains. As luck would have it, Sweet Pill was driving around Vegas in their retrofitted mini school bus that doubles as the band’s sleeping quarters and gear transportation. Because La Dispute was scheduled to perform at When We Were Young Fest, Sweet Pill had a break in the schedule on the Wildlife tour and decided to attend the festival. Suddenly, their little blue bus full of gear became their golden ticket to scoring a slot playing one of the evening’s last minute shows.

Youssef describes the band as being like “a package deal with La Dispute” for the weekend, so when La Dispute announced their Saturday-night sideshow with Mom Jeans and the Wonder Years, Sweet Pill was the band that snagged the final slot to round out the lineup. Each band playing that show ended up using Sweet Pill’s backing equipment — including Chris Kearney’s drumkit adorned with the band’s album cover art and they all took time out of their set to shout out and thank the band while the crowd took photos and videos that displayed Dunn’s portrait work.

[Photo by Max Shaw]

The following day at the fest was no less chaotic. While Youssef had an artist wristband to perform onstage with La Dispute, her bandmates did not. That aside, they all walked with purpose past security — brandishing their Wildlife anniversary tour laminates that conveniently matched the color of the festival artist passes. (“Security was like ‘Oh yeah, let us walk you to your trailer,’… “We don’t have a trailer!” says Youssef.) Save for a few run-ins with individual security guards, they spent much of Sunday sneaking backstage and into VIP artist lounges where they rubbed shoulders with the likes of Parker Canon of the Story So Far and Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara.

With When We Were Young Fest behind them and the La Dispute tour over, Sweet Pill has their sights set on the future. In December 2022, the band joined Into It. Over It. for their Chicago hometown show, as well as the Philly-based Champagne Jam hosted by the Front Bottoms. 

A dream of theirs, though, is to collaborate with Paramore. To say Youssef is a Paramore stan would be an understatement. While most members of the band answered audibly about who they would like to work with, Youssef, on the other hand, got up, picked up a copy of Alternative Press with Hayley Williams on the cover, and held it while standing next to one of the many Paramore posters hanging on her wall. 

Even without watching how excitedly Youssef bounced around her room talking about Paramore, Sweet Pill’s love for the band shines through in their music. Listening to “High Hopes,” or “Diamond Eyes” one can hear “All You Know Is Falling”-esque vocal breakdowns. Even more, Youssef herself says the band’s song “Cut” was inspired by “Simmer” from Williams’ solo project, Petals for Armor.

The band made it clear that if there’s another iteration of Paramore’s cruise event Parahoy! and they’re looking to fill out their roster, Sweet Pill is on deck. There’s no doubt the band could use their Philly roots to develop the currently non-existent DIY scene at sea.

The Best Albums of 2022

Dirty Hit

The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language

On their 2019 album, the 1975 sang about how "sincerity is scary." On this year's release, frontman/lyricist Matty Healy poured out of his heart every feeling he has about allowing oneself to be sincere, giving yourself over to love, and what masculinity means in this day and age. In the most 1975 way possible, that comes across in playful, snarky witticisms and shameless admissions ("Part of the Band," "The 1975," "When We Are Together"), and damn perfect pop songs ("Happiness," "Oh Caroline," "I'm In Love With You") that capture the effervescent feeling of love in sheeny guitars and synths. With each verse that makes you stop in your tracks to either laugh or tear up, you'll feel a little more sincere, too. —Sadie Bell

Domino Records

Alex G – God Save the Animals

Alex G’s ninth studio album, God Save the Animals, is further proof that he's the Brian Wilson of the millennial generation. The 13-track release finds him once again covering considerable sonic ground, from introspective folk, hyperpop, emo, and ‘90s alt rock that almost feels cinematic in scope. Whether he's modulating and pitch-shifting his voice or stripping his arrangements down to their bare bones, Alex G’s music is as beautiful as it is unsettling. Even when he ventures into strictly instrumental territory with tracks like “S.D.O.S,” he still conveys so much emotion and meaning. God Save the Animals is Alex G at peak form — defying any creative limitations in pursuit of constant exploration. —Alessandro DeCaro 

Dine Alone Records

Alexisonfire – Otherness

It’s rare for a band to come back in style after 13 years and release their best work to date, but Canadian rock veterans Alexisonfire did just that. Otherness is proof that sometimes you need to go back to basics to discover who you really are. The LP contains elements of the band’s classic post-hardcore sound, but with a more raw, organic approach that toes the line between classic rock and atmospheric psych-rock — along with three distinct vocalists — to create a sound that could be their own genre at this point. Upon first listen, it's clear that Alexisonfire are firing on all cylinders, sounding more in sync as collaborators and more confident than ever before. —AD 

Polyvinyl / Transgressive

Alvvays – Blue Rev

Canada's Alvvays tend to take quite a few years between records — and that might just be because every time, they cook up nothing less than indie-pop perfection. Named after the Canadian alcoholic beverage Rev, Blue Rev is bubbly and intoxicating, with its shoegaze and power-pop guitars, and varied — at times dreamy and others warped — production. One sip of singer Molly Rankin's poetic musings about heartbreak and growing older and you'll be buzzed on the sheer dreaminess that is Blue Rev. —SB

Epitaph

Architects – the classic symptoms of a broken spirit

Architects have consistently been the precursor for what British heavy metal sounds like; they write a riff, and five years later, it’s the only thing you hear on the radio or live. Their 10th studio album is no different, offering the similar themes of nihilism and existentialism you know of the band, but with an optimistic, lively approach. Experimenting with makeup and fashion in music videos, seamlessly blending technical metal verses with pop choruses, Architects still find their artistic challenges to overcome with this release — and in doing so, help to elevate British heavy metal to a mainstream level. —Yasmine Summan

Domino Records

Arctic Monkeys – The Car

Just when you thought Arctic Monkeys couldn't get more stylish, the English indie titans do the damn thing. On their 2018 record, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, frontman Alex Turner positioned himself and the band as a lounge-pop act rather than one of the biggest rock groups in the world. Here, they keep up the act, but in a way that somehow exudes even more glamor. It sounds pristine, and the sexy, funky moments beg to be heard beneath "a mirrorball." As Turner sings in falsetto about fame, love, and heartbreak over cinematic tracks, they paint a world of panache you can't help but get lost in — much like a vintage romance (perhaps specifically one that plays out in a '70s club that's drenched in velvet). —SB

DTA / Elektra Records

Avril Lavigne – Love Sux

The pop-punk revival has dominated the early 2020s, with comebacks from industry mainstays, paired with exciting new artists bursting through the seams. It could arguably feel impossible for acts to break through all the nostalgic noise — but for the reigning pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne, it’s no sweat. Love Sux is like the cooler older sister to 2007's The Best Damn Thing, touching on similar topics from a matured perspective, with a strong experience in the field, and more to deliver. And yet, it still manages to connect with the younger crowds, offering collaborations with Machine Gun Kelly and YUNGBLUD. Grammy snub or not, Love Sux should be praised in pop-punk history. —YS

RIMAS

Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Tí

Puerto Rico’s gift to the world has bottled summer and its intricacies in a cross-genre affair that spans dream pop, grimy dembow, merengue, house, and trap. This masterclass in Latin alternative features assists from fellow Boricuas the Marías and Buscabulla, and Colombia’s Bomba Estéreo. Bad Bunny’s latest proves the future of popular music (in any language) lies in the alternative approach. —E.R. Pulgar

Sumerian Records

Bad Omens – THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND

For their third studio album, THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND, Bad Omens made a conscious effort to prove that they are so much more than a metalcore band, and it certainly shows. From the opener “CONCRETE JUNGLE,” which blends moody synths pads, dance beats, and R&B-esque vocals in the vein of Post Malone or the Weeknd to the radio-ready rock anthem “Nowhere To Go,” Bad Omens make every track feel like its own entity while still retaining cohesion. Those who love their heavier material will be satiated just fine with “Artificial Suicide” and “IDWT$,” where the band flex their aggression in compelling new ways. Ultimaely, THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND is a record that redefines experimentation in modern metalcore. —AD

4AD

Bartees Strange – Farm To Table

Ever since his debut, Bartees Strange has propped the door open to another galaxy. It’s one that seems to stretch infinitely, with possibility and experimentation reigning supreme. On his sophomore album, Farm To Table, he continues to subvert and challenge how people think about music, from the indie-trap of “Cosigns” to the exuberant dance-pop of “Wretched.” Strange has undergone a momentous year, the type that’s joyful to witness from an artist who continues to evolve and enrapture through sheer curiosity. —Neville Hardman

Parkwood Entertainment

Beyoncé – Renaissance

The disco reverbs, electronic funk breakdowns, and vogue beats are turned to 100 on Beyoncé’s latest knockout. Renaissance is a study of nightlife’s queer fringe, featuring samples from legends like Donna Summer and Robin S., production by Chicago house icon Honey Dijon, and appearances from Grace Jones and Big Freedia. Virgo’s groove indeed. —ERP 

Dirty Hit

beabadoobee – Beatopia

While beabadoobee's 2020 debut Fake It Flowers was rife with grunge and the teen angst of a coming-of-age soundtrack, Bea Kristi's sound became more expansive in this year's follow-up Beatopia. Less concerned with genre, the Filipina-British singer toys with fizzy guitar-pop and string-flanked ballads with less of a focus on wooing fans with catchy hooks. Instead, Beatopia finds Kristi more confident in experimentation and less worried about fitting into a nostalgic box. —Ilana Kaplan

Bertelsmann Music Group

Black Thought and Danger Mouse – Cheat Codes

Since his days swapping bars with Malik B. in the Roots, Black Thought has been a consistently great rapper. With Cheat Codes, the collaborative album between the visionary MC and producer Danger Mouse, his indelible command is being put in a new light. The album’s 12 tracks are a satisfying display of their combined powers that rattle in your chest, from the nocturnal pleasure of “Saltwater” to the radiant funk of “The Darkest Part.” —NH

Run For Cover Records

Camp Cope – Running with the Hurricane

There is still so much to be angry about, but on their third record, Camp Cope choose to replace the fury of their past with tender vulnerability. Folk-rock and fresh pop-country melodies accompany the feeling that the Australian trio have assembled newfound self-acceptance. Singer Georgia Maq treats emotions gently and never takes herself too seriously. She swallows her pride to double text a crush or forgives someone before they’ve even apologized. Running with the Hurricane reminds us that there is always room for reinvention. As Maq declares on the title track, “The only way out is up.” —Natalia Barr

Atlantic Records

Charli XCX – CRASH

Throughout the promo of CRASH, hyperpop princess Charli XCX joked that it was her "major label sell-out record" and that she was ready to sell her soul to the industry. It was all very cheeky, coming from the alt-pop experimenter — and it ended up feeding into the record in fascinating ways. CRASH as a whole sounds like a love letter from one of pop's brightest and most attentive students, infusing her future-minded production with '80s disco and Y2K bubblegum elements. But that's just Charli, baby: an innovator who's always been a main pop girl at heart, and thank goodness for that. —SB

Island Records

Demi Lovato – HOLY FVCK

After years of releasing R&B-tinged power ballads and pop records, Demi Lovato returned to her rock roots with HOLY FVCK. Her eighth studio album was flanked by hard-rock choruses and pop-punk anthems, brimming with religious imagery and sex. But the anchor of the record has been the song "29," a defiant rock ballad that grapples with consent. For Lovato and her fans, HOLY FVCK is a new beginning and a return to form. —IK

Loma Vista Recordings

Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Denzel Curry would rather stay silent than put out the same album twice. The animated MC thrives on unpredictability and pushing boundaries, and with his fifth studio album, he succeeds. On Melt My Eyez See Your Future, Curry’s love of jazz, anime, and poetry coalesce, resulting in an eccentric brew. Surprises are abundant, from a Thundercat collab that draws from To Pimp A Butterfly material (“The Smell of Death”) to a Mac Miller shoutout (“X-Wing”). Through it all, Curry’s ambition rivals that of Jiraiya going up against the Six Paths of Pain. —NH

Hopeless Records

DE’WAYNE – My Favorite Blue Jeans

DE’WAYNE’s sophomore album, My Favorite Blue Jeans, is a reflective, coming-of-age narrative that chronicles the charismatic singer-songwriter’s journey to stardom thus far after moving to the City of Angels to pursue his dreams. Sonically, the album is loaded with earworm choruses, infectious vocal melodies, and a host of high-profile features (Good Charlotte, grandson, POORSTACY) that makes the entire experience feel like one big party. DE’WAYNE wears his influences proudly, whether that’s with the classic Ramones-tinged ripper “GOOD MOOD” or the suave indie-rock stylings of “SIMPLE.” And though DE’WAYNE created an album that feels like an eclectic playlist, it still remains entirely cohesive. —AD

Pure Noise Records

Drug Church – Hygiene

On Drug Church’s fourth studio album, Hygiene, the hardcore quintet are further expanding their foray into more accessible and anthemic territory. It's not unlike their genre counterparts Turnstile — and with a record this strong, it wouldn't be surprising to see the band reach similar crossover success. Vocalist Patrick Kindlon, who's as charismatic as he is enigmatic, uses his voice to lean on melody, which suits his direct and brutally honest lyrical approach brilliantly. Tracks such as “Super Saturated” and “Million Miles of Fun” are timely anthems that tackle the anxieties of life in an overstimulated society, while songs like “Detective Lieutenant” and “Athlete On Bench" take time for personal introspection. —AD

Tan Cressida

Earl Sweatshirt – Sick!

While 2019’s Feet of Clay had listeners trodding through inscrutable metaphors and soupy jazz loopings in order to hear his testaments, Earl Sweatshirt’s Sick! is not only his most accessible music in years — it’s lyrically some of his sharpest. Sweatshirt sounds poised as he ruminates on COVID-19 and newfound fatherhood, providing an album full of intellectual musings so crystal clear, it reaffirms his place as one of rap’s most compelling lyricists. —Mackenzie Cummings-Grady

Daughters of Cain

Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter

Preacher’s Daughter conjures images of endless Midwestern plains, Gunne Sax, sweet tea, scorned housewives, and empty Southern church pews, save for one woman looking for salvation. With the record, singer-songwriter Ethel Cain created a gorgeous, tragic world that both looks lovingly, but also with disdain, at Americana. At times, she goes pop ("American Teenager"), and others, she taps into her goth and rock influences ("Family Tree," "Gibson Girl"), and even hymns ("Sun Bleached Flies"), all to tell the story of the character Ethel Cain's journey on the road, only to die at the hands of a cannibalistic killer. Throughout it all, she's as vulnerable as she was on the second floor of that "house in Nebraska." It's an album that's sure to go down as a modern classic in American gothic. —SB

Young/Atlantic

FKA twigs – CAPRISONGS

Capricorns are arguably one of the most overlooked signs of the zodiac, as they're often unfairly judged for being too independent and hardworking. Cap suns like FKA twigs know just how special it can be to have the seagoat rule your chart — so much so that the R&B innovator dropped a mixtape inspired by it in the midst of Capricorn season. Where much of her work features sparse, heartbreaking stunners, CAPRISONGS is an arty pop record pulled together with dancehall rhythms and beats and full of thrilling features. Even as it's making you cry "tears in the club," this is a record for someone who both trusts that the planets will align perfectly for them and is very much in control of their own destiny. —SB

ANTI-

Girlpool – Forgiveness

Don't remind certain fans that Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad are putting their indie project Girlpool to rest after nine years; for some, the news was gutting. Thankfully, the duo ended on a high note with the sonically bold and utterly heart-wrenching Forgiveness. A record for midnight brooding or when you lay awake pining, it explores brutal thoughts about devotion, infatuation, and giving into toxic behaviors time and time again over romantic and harsh synths. The dance between Tucker and Tividad's voices has never been so captivating, so it's sad to see their partnership come to an end. At least fans are left with gorgeous tracks like "Faultline" that help to bring out unbridled emotions like only a Girlpool song can. —SB

Columbia Records

Harry Styles – Harry’s House

The world of Harry Styles is teeming with glitter, retro jumpsuits, and glorious dancing. On Harry's House, it all comes together in a spellbinding amalgamation of sticky synth-pop, funk, R&B, and tender ballads. Whether he's singing about sex (“Keep Driving”) or a child who needs to leave their home behind ("Matilda"), Styles is open-hearted, and the result is perhaps his most confessional album yet. —IK

pgLang

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Released 1,855 days after his last album DAMN., Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers argued there was an important reason for K. Dot’s absence: He was working on himself. With a stocky, 78-minute double album, Kung Fu Kenny turns the critical eye away from the political stratosphere and looks deep within, using the project’s expansive, jazz-infused backdrops to explore his most uncomfortable tendencies. —MCG

Fantasy Records

L.S. Dunes – Past Lives

It’s almost unbelievable that we get to witness musical history with a band like L.S. Dunes. The group — made up of prominent scene legends Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin), Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), and Travis Stever (Coheed and Cambria), along with rhythm section Tucker Rule and Tim Payne (Thursday) — melded their collective strengths as songwriters and players to craft Past Lives, a product of friendship and camaraderie during the darkest times imaginable. From the vulnerable, hypnotic opening track “2022” to the frenetic “Permanent Rebellion” and the subtle doo-wop elements of the tender closer “Sleep Cult,” L.S. Dunes blast through 11 tracks of compelling rhythms, dueling guitars, and electrifying vocals, where every member performs as if their lives are depending on it. —AD

Epitaph

The Linda Lindas – Growing Up

About a year after going viral for a performance of their song "Racist, Sexist Boy," teenage punks the Linda Lindas returned in 2022 with their debut full-length. The fierceness and forward-thinking energy of that video that instantly made fans fall for them didn't subside on Growing Up — in fact, it's amplified. Singing of the challenges of growing up, as well as wanting to enjoy their youths and believe in a more perfect world, and several cat references, for good measure, it's a wholesome, punk-as-hell, pop-fused effort from the foursome. How lucky the teens and tweens of today are to grow up along with them! —SB

BMG

Louis Tomlinson – Faith In The Future

Louis Tomlinson's highly anticipated sophomore album, Faith In The Future, was a chance for the former One Directioner to get out of his comfort zone. While his debut Walls played it safer with tender rock numbers, Faith In The Future leaned into stadium-sized anthems, indie sleaze homages, and soaring choruses. If anything, Faith In The Future fully laid the groundwork for Tomlinson's evolution beyond his pop roots. —IK

300 Entertainment

Megan Thee Stallion – Traumazine

While Megan Thee Stallion has previously hidden behind her numerous alter egos (Hot Girl Meg, Tina Snow, etc.), her rise these past few years, from buzzing Houston talent to cultural icon, has been polluted with harassment, mourning and misogynistic scrutiny. On Traumazine, Stallion sheds these fabricated skins in favor of her own, as she offers a poised yet frustrated look at the heartache she’s endured, and at a racist and sexist culture that seems intent on dismissing her. —MCG

Dead Oceans

Mitski – Laurel Hell

Following the exhausting virality of Be the Cowboy, Mitski stepped back from music and touring in 2019. In the opening lines of her sixth album, she cautiously picks up where she left off: “Let’s step carefully into the dark. Once we’re in, I’ll remember my way around.” With her bearings in place, Mitski offers glimpses of her seclusion: the minimal synth work of “Everyone,” the jazz keyboard of “Heat Lightning,” and the irresistible ‘80s pop centerpieces “The Only Heartbreaker” and “Love Me More.” Internally, she’s exploring power dynamics: within relationships, the music industry, and the artist herself. —NB

Polyvinyl Record Co.

Momma – Household Name

Brooklyn-based indie-rock band Momma's latest is a cheeky play on the Gen Xer-sounding sentiment that these days, rock bands just don't get as big as they used — played out in massive-sounding guitars, songs like "Rockstar," and down to the title. They sure sound like fucking rock stars, though! Household Name is a blast and includes everything that makes a great rock record: driving songs ("Speeding 72," "Motorbike"), huge hooks over lustful lyrics ("Medicine," "Callin Me"), and an attitude that says they're going for it. Get this group in stadiums ASAP. —SB

Roadrunner Records

Motionless In White – Scoring the End of the World

With a title like Scoring the End of the World, Motionless In White certainly delivered in terms of writing dystopian-minded anthems that possess an exciting, new, cyberpunk-esque dimension. Tracks like the opener “Meltdown” and lead single “Cyberhex” find the band fusing djent metal with industrial electronics and theatrical effects that feel straight out of a blockbuster film or triple-A video game soundtrack. Additionally, there's a host of features — Knocked Loose’s Bryan Garris (“Slaughterhouse”), Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo (“Red, White & Boom"), and famed Doom composer Mick Gordon (“Scoring the End of the World”) — that make the record feel like a celebration, even when the world is seemingly falling apart. —AD

Saddest Factory/Dead Oceans

MUNA – MUNA

MUNA have become experts at making space for art that is unapologetically queer. Their self-titled release is no different, yet oscillates between psychedelic country ballads and blistering synth-pop anthems. And they're clearly having fun while doing it — take their viral Phoebe Bridgers-assisted hit "Silk Chiffon," for instance. MUNA's first record without RCA and under Bridgers' imprint Saddest Factory Records proves that the band aren't done evolving just yet. —IK

ATO Records

Nilüfer Yanya – PAINLESS

Nilüfer Yanya’s PAINLESS is an album for loners and introverts. Her whispery, cooly controlled delivery (one that she used to try sounding bigger but ditched when the words came out “forced and ugly”) guides listeners through a record rife with introspection and heartsick melancholy. Behind all of her rhythmic and subdued songs, however, is a woman acting on the wrong impulses — wrestling with obsession (“belong with you”), writhing in loneliness (“try”), pulling all-nighters (“stabilise”) — that results in a heady swirl. —NH

Marshall Records

Nova Twins – Supernova

English rock duo Nova Twins finally got the attention they deserve in 2022, collaborating with their idols Oli Sykes and Jason Aalon Butler and releasing their second studio album, Supernova. Coming from a duo that were still relatively unknown to the world only two years ago, it's easy to discuss what so incredibly stands out on the record: the production quality, the vicious punk guitars edging you with every lick, and singer/guitarist Amy Love’s vocals piercing through the veil. But the overarching win for this album is how it resonates with Gen Z. Through their inclusive messaging and stance against inequality within the rock scene, they’ve cultivated and empowered an audience of young people, and that’s something to be praised. —YS

Warner Records

Omar Apollo – Ivory

The prince of Latin alt-pop comes into his own with his genre-hopping debut record, Ivory. Veering between traditional Mexican corridos, fuzzy garage guitar, and funked-out synth pop, Omar Apollo has given himself space to experiment. His voice is the main sell here: his honey-tinged falsetto stretched to its logical extreme teeming with heartbreak and future romance. —ERP

Triple Crown Records

Oso Oso – sore thumb

sore thumb wasn't supposed to exist as it does. But when Jade Lilitri, the brainchild behind the beloved Long Island emo project Oso Oso, lost his cousin/guitarist/creative partner Tavish Maloney, who had been helping him record new tracks in 2021, he felt compelled to put them out — no changes necessary. It diverges from the band's power pop to be a bit more subtle and strange, but the hooks still arrive, and do so exuberantly. Ultimately, it rages with Lilitri's sweet, bro-y motto that Oso Oso's become known for: that nothing will ever be better for the soul than hanging out with your friends. Kick back, pour one (a gatorade, obviously!) out, and let the inside jokes (and maybe a few tears) roll. —SB

Hopeless Records

Pinkshift – Love Me Forever

With honest lyrics, fast punk beats, and shredding guitars, Love Me Forever is an impeccable debut for Baltimore punks Pinkshift. Vocalist Ashrita Kumar is a fiery and versatile presence, unafraid of calling out anyone who's done them wrong (“GET OUT”) while also remaining vulnerable enough to display their deepest insecurities (“i’m not crying you’re crying”). However, the most remarkable part of the record is the band’s unique arrangement skills that pair classic punk with glam-rock guitar solos, and ‘90s-inspired post-grunge and nü-metal-esque vocal stylings (“Trust Fall”). With such a range, their sound should feel accessible and relevant to a wide array of listeners. —AD 

Rise Records

Polyphia – Remember That You Will Die

On Remember That You Will Die, Polyphia offer exceptional musicianship in the form of virtuosic guitar lines, mathematical time signatures, and world-class arrangements that marry organic instrumentation and modern production. The record sounds luxurious, as if it was made to be played while driving in a foreign sports car. For the ambitious release, the band enlisted a series of powerful collaborators, including Sophia Black, who has a breakout performance on the energized track “ABC,” as well as some of their biggest influences, like famed guitarist Steve Vai (“Ego Death”) and Chino Moreno of Deftones (“Bloodbath”). With a healthy dose of indulgence and swagger, Polyphia have accomplished the seemingly impossible task of making guitar virtuoso music cool again. —AD

Columbia Records

Rosalía – Motomami

The Spanish experimentalist takes a sonic tour of the Caribbean while still proclaiming herself a flamenco cantaora. Whatever eyebrows this raises aesthetically, one cannot doubt she has done something groundbreaking. Rosalía’s voice soars, expands, and contracts into new sonic terrain, molding jazz breaks, underground electronic, bachata, dembow, and flamenco into startling new forms. —ERP

Because Music

Shygirl – Nymph

Nowadays, being in one's "slut era" can not only be hot but also extremely empowering, thanks to the term being reclaimed by many. That energy is all over British singer-rapper Shygirl's debut album, with songs like "Coochie (a bedtime story)," “Shlut," and more. With stylish production that ranges from hyperpop sounds, like on the Arca-produced "Come for Me," to more muted, dreamy tracks, and sexy, forward lyrics delivered in Shygirl's signature soft voice, it's an intimate fantasy of a record. —SB

UNFD

Silverstein – Misery Made Me

For their 11th studio album, Misery Made Me, Canadian post-hardcore mainstays Silverstein made their most musically diverse record yet. The record's 11 songs contain their heaviest material to date, as well as their most accessible and delicate. Whether it’s the experimental and abrasive two-part track “The Altar/Mary” or the straightforward hardcore on “Die Alone,” Misery Made Me celebrates their most grandiose musical ambitions. Other standout tracks include “Ultraviolet,” a song that's tailor-made for active rock radio, or the somber ballads “Cold Blood” and “Misery,” which prove Silverstein can still pull on our heartstrings after a two-decade-plus career. —AD

XL

The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention

Pessimists know that Radiohead are as good as over, but the Smile — featuring Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet) — are a whole new beast. On their debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention, Yorke and Greenwood seem to have found reprieve from their other bands' asphyxiating hype. Longtime producer Nigel Godrich sits at the controls, blanketing each song with a supernatural intensity. Best of all is Skinner, who can slither between skittering drums or a motorik beat to emphasize Yorke’s ghostly pleas and raucous sneers. —NH

Loma Vista Recordings

Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever

Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison spent years hinting at darkness beneath bubbly grunge melodies. Sometimes, Forever unfurls the emotions that have grown out of proportion. “I don’t know how to feel things small, it’s a tidal wave or nothing at all,” she sings on the album closer "Still." Growing up can feel like a tsunami, but Allison treads through the absurdity. With production by Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin, Soccer Mommy explores sounds of industrious grit and psychedelic shoegaze. She navigates her mind’s darkest corners to uncover demons, blood, and ghost stories. For the first time, she offers us a blood-curdling scream. Finally, relief. —NB

Domino Records

Sorry – Anywhere But Here

No matter how busy cities are, sometimes they can feel downright isolating — like after a difficult breakup, for instance. It's what North London indie-rock band Sorry explore on Anywhere But Here, from how haunting it can be that your ex might be in somebody else's bed on the other side of town to the tragedy of seeing other lonely people passing by. The band, led by longtime friends Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen, have always been known for their moodiness, and their sophomore album is all mood in the best way possible, as it explores the whole gamut of emotions that comes with heartbreak and translates that with arresting guitars and production. —SB

Static Dress

Static Dress – Rouge Carpet Disaster

With their highly anticpated debut LP, Rouge Carpet Disaster, British experimental, post-hardcore newcomers Static Dress bottled up the distinct sonic world and aesthetic they'd been developing in the years prior into one concise, compelling body of work. Led by vocalist and creative director Olli Appleyard, Static Dress take listeners on a journey through a series of panic chords, stuttering electronics, ASMR elements and unforgettable vocal melodies that blend aggression and palpable despair seamlessly. Rouge Carpet Disaster is a release that sounds like nothing you've ever heard before while also inserting a shot of eerily placed nostalgia. —AD

RCA Records

Steve Lacy – Gemini Rights

Inspired by a bad breakup, Steve Lacy’s second record is confident and grandiose, full of rich fusions of funk, jazz and R&B. Ditching the GarageBand solo ventures of his debut, Gemini Rights’ collaborative fanfare makes heartbreak sound enticing. The viral, chart-topping earworm “Bad Habit” is a perfect example. Its optimistic guitar rifts contrast Lacy’s beseeching vocals as he pines for someone toxic. Filled with equal parts empathy and desperation, Gemini Rights is a too-relatable, all-consuming cocktail. —MCG

Stones Throw Records

Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen

Sudan Archives conjures magic with a flick of her violin bow. From the jump, her spectacular sophomore album, Natural Brown Prom Queen, puts you under a spell, offering an excursion through many of the things that Archives succeeds at so well — boundless creativity, maximalism, and love and precision for her craft. Through the record’s 18 tracks, Archives exudes confidence and charisma at every turn as she sings of home, sexuality, and Blackness. It’s the ultimate hallucinogenic soundtrack for the prom you might’ve missed out on. —NH

Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA Records

SZA – SOS

SZA still gets it. On her debut, the singer intimately described insecurities without any hint of shame or secrecy. Her new album, SOS, reminds us that those intrusive anxieties never truly disappear, but maturity makes them easier to swallow. Across 23 tracks, there is no limit to the shapes SZA’s voice can take. She soars on the pop-punk-driven “F2F,” creeps alongside Phoebe Bridgers on “Ghost in the Machine,” and destroys and conquers on the opening track. “And all the petty shit aside/All the funny shit aside/I just want what’s mine,” she asserts. SZA, it’s all yours. —NB

Republic Records

Taylor Swift – Midnights

Taylor Swift is a master of reinvention, crafting eras, personas, and expertly curating genres throughout her oeuvre. You could say, she's somewhat of a mastermind. On her 10th studio album, Midnights, she proves that, setting an atmosphere of late nights drenched in regret, drinks, and self-loathing. Throughout the album's 13 songs (and eight bonus tracks), Swift uses synth-pop teeming with reverb, delicate balladry, and catchy pop hooks to deliver some of her most soul-baring lines, with a smile and a wink. —IK

XO/Republic Records

The Weeknd – Dawn FM

Leave it to forever sad boy the Weeknd to make a concept album that plays out like the radio show you hear en route to the afterlife — and also make it an absolute banger. While the concept might sound bleak, it's the R&B hitmaker at his most playful, reuniting with frequent collaborator Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never for many tracks to create a glittery, retro-pop universe. If the '80s-inspired dance-pop synths on "Take My Breath" are what purgatory sounds like, dancing until you're dead doesn't sound bad at all. —SB

Domino Records

Wet Leg – Wet Leg

Your mid-to-late 20s can be a weird time; when some friends are getting married, you might still feel like you were 21 just yesterday, and can't fathom what's next. So bless Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers of the Isle of Wight-based indie group Wet Leg for uniting two years ago to write about all of those feelings — and doing it in the most lively, post-punk way. From parties where the vibes feel off to being in love to rejecting less than what they deserve and craving something more, Wet Leg dives into it all, with a delightful helping of arty arrangements, hooks, and silly one-liners. You can tell they're having fun, and it's a reminder at how fruitful life can be when you feel it all and take it as it comes. —SB

Sub Pop

Weyes Blood – And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Natalie Mering, who performs as Weyes Blood, has called her latest album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow a thematic follow-up to 2019's Titanic Rising — with that album sensing catastrophe was in the air, and AITDHA reporting what it's like in the thick of it. Even as Weyes Blood sings of isolation, societal collapse, and disastrous heartbreak, there's a glimmer of optimism, relayed in her vivid lyricism and atmospheric, chamber-pop melodies. As she sings on "God Turn Me Into a Flower," there's beauty and, more importantly, hope to be found in vulnerability. Those sentiments shine through, and even the softest of moments are stunners. —SB

Msftsmusic/Roc Nation

WILLOW – COPINGMECHANISM

You cannot deny that WILLOW released one of the best rock albums of 2022, which is sure to be looked at as a blueprint to study for years to come. With her fifth studio album, <COPINGMECHANISM>, it seems WILLOW experienced a renewed sense of musical freedom, which includes an embrace of hard-rock and nü-metal elements that allows the vocal powerhouse to shine on every front. Whether it’s heavy arena bangers (“ur a <stranger>”) or upbeat pop rock (“hover like a GODDESS,” “curious/furious”), WILLOW avoids filler and puts heart, soul, and intentionality behind every track. —AD

The Loneliest Place on Earth/Hopeless Records

The Wonder Years – The Hum Goes on Forever

After a series of marriages, births, tragedies, and a pandemic, the Wonder Years had more than enough material for their seventh album, The Hum Goes on Forever. The record is largely a return to their classic sound, albeit with newfound wisdom that's applied brilliantly (“Wyatt’s Song (Your Name),” “Old Friends Like Lost Teeth”). Though the record touches on topics of loss and societal collapse, it comes to a heartfelt conclusion. “You’re The Reason I Don’t Want the World to End” makes peace with madness and serves as a touching reminder that sometimes all we all need to do is lean on our loved ones whenever the world feels like a scary place. —AD

Metallica are bringing Architects, Ice Nine Kills, more along for a massive world tour

Metallica are back with a pummeling new single, “Lux Æterna,” ahead of their 12th studio record, 72 Seasons (out April 14). Appropriately, the heavy-metal legends will embark on a two-year world tour in support of the release. Kicking off the run April 27 in Amsterdam, the band will make stops in several cities until September 2024. Support includes AP digital cover stars Architects, Ice Nine Kills, Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch and Mammoth WVH. Tickets are on sale now here. —Neville Hardman

The Wonder Years announce The Hum Goes on Forever U.S. tour

Following the release of their staggering seventh studio album, The Hum Goes on Forever, this past September, the Wonder Years will head out on a U.S. tour in support of its release this winter. The tour begins Feb. 17 in Richmond, Virginia, hitting cities from coast to coast before wrapping up in Wilmington, Delaware for two nights March 25-26. Emo-revivalists Hot Mulligan and Philadelphia punk trio Carly Cosgrove will support. Additionally, the Wonder Years have asked fans to submit their dream setlists for the tour via Instagram. Chances are, they will perform a career-spanning set each night. Tickets go on sale Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. local time here. —Alessandro DeCaro

Ride and the Charlatans (UK) announce co-headlining BetweenNowhere North America tour

Ride and the Charlatans (UK), who are both two of the most underrated acts to come out of the early ‘90s Britpop and shoegaze scenes, have announced a North American co-headling tour this winter. Additionally, both bands will use the run as an opportunity to celebrate and perform their most beloved albums in their entirety, including Ride’s classic 1990 record Nowhere and the Charlatan’s 1992 release Between 10th and 11th. Tickets go on sale Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. local time here. —Alessandro DeCaro

Primavera Sound 2023 unveils a positively stacked lineup in Spain

Primavera Sound’s 2023 lineup will make you want to book a flight to Spain, stat. Next year’s roster hosts tons of exciting and forward-thinking acts, including Halsey, Turnstile, Kendrick Lamar, PinkPantheress, DARKSIDE, Rosalía, Death Grips, Sudan Archives, Yves Tumor, FKA twigs and plenty more. The three-day event will take place over two weekends this spring, with the first occurring in Barcelona (June 1-3) and the second in Madrid (June 8-10). Grab your passes now. —Neville Hardman

Vagabon will join Weyes Blood on tour in 2023

Vagabon, aka Lætitia Tamko, has announced dates supporting Weyes Blood on her In Holy Flux tour in 2023. With Weyes Blood fresh off her gorgeous new album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Vagabon will surely have a packed audience to perform to each night. The run begins March 13 in Milwaukee and concludes April 2 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Grab tickets here. —Neville Hardman

When I started calling myself a poet in college, I was first inspired by Modern Baseball, not O’Hara or Kenneth Koch or Sylvia Plath or anyone you’d find on the syllabus of an entry-level English course. It was listening to their debut album Sports where I learned how to conjure an image out of words that don’t belong together. Take “Re-Do” for one: “Maybe I could just move away or go extinct like triceratops/But I love loving, watching movies, sitting back and also breathing.” Sports is poetic, with its lines about using the brightness of teeth as a lantern, the linguistic curiosity within the word “reckon,” poor grammar in Facebook statuses and cellphone contacts pillaged like vast landscapes.

Read more: What does emo really mean? The story of the genre in 11 songs

After playing some acoustic shows together, graduating high school and moving to Philadelphia, Ewald and Lukens met the ska-loving bassist and producer Ian Farmer and made their first record in Drexel University’s recording studio. On Nov. 27, 2012, Sports landed in the laps of a budding fanbase cultivated through DIY shows around the city. At 12 songs and 31 minutes on the dot, the three Philadelphians changed emo rock in Pennsylvania forever. They weren’t as heavy as their counterparts in the city, like the Wonder Years, the Menzingers, Everyone Everywhere and Hop Along, but they had the same passion and intensity for the DIY community, and hoped to discover their own potential within a flourishing region. 

Ewald’s Instagram account was truly a time capsule of that time, with many of his posts documenting those early shows in low-resolution with relic photo filters. It feels like a lifetime ago, when Modern Baseball had not yet blown up on social media with their seminal 2014 record, You’re Gonna Miss It All. Everything seemed simpler then, when acoustic emo bands were getting popular on apps like Tumblr, where accounts would paste their lyrics in cursive font over stock photography. 

Romance, wasted time, friendship and goofball semantics — this was the promised landscape of Modern Baseball from the get-go. What more could you expect, or need, from two kids barely out of high school? At the time Sports properly entered my orbit, I was the same age Ewald and Lukens were when they wrote it. Four years after its release, every story on the tracklist kept similar levels of urgency. But by then they’d put out more records and left Sports in their own bygone era  — which is a testament to the emo genre, where everything stumbles over itself.

If you were a teenager in the early 2010s, you most likely participated in sacred rituals of Tumblr, when thousands of emo lyrics were pasted atop stock photography and shared in droves. Reblogging those posts, that’s how I, and so many other rural kids, discovered music that lived beyond the margins of the top-40 zeitgeist. It was as if each emotion I ever felt was universally defined by some lyric to a song that someone else had already claimed as their own. I didn’t grow up with siblings, so I’m not familiar with the architecture of close-proximity lineage or the cherished gesture of passing an interest down to a brother or sister. So it was the endless utopia of social media, in the years when it hadn’t yet consumed our lives completely, that put new, exciting work into my own sightline.

Before my best friend Jessi and I became close, we sporadically reblogged each other on Tumblr. It was her page that often shoehorned me into another dimension, one full of American Football, the Wonder Years, the Front Bottoms and, of course, Modern Baseball. It was far from my own microcosm, one full of Nirvana, Drake and the Beatles. We went to the same high school, though we didn’t talk in person until after she graduated in 2015, when I was about to go into my senior year. With three other people, we formed an inseparable friend group and spent most of our time together in the summer of 2015, parading Burger Kings, basements and the local mall’s Hot Topic. 

If you are a Modern Baseball fan like me, I’m sure you remember where you were when the band made that heartbreaking post on Instagram. I was in my college’s dining hall, doom-scrolling before another class. The band were preparing to maneuver across the country on a spring tour with Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band, Sorority Noise and the Obsessives to mark the first birthday of their third LP, Holy Ghost. First, Lukens came to social media to announce they wouldn’t be touring with the band because of their mental health. Then, nearly a month later, Ewald announced their hiatus, notably spurred by everyone in the band feeling like the project had become more a source of anxiety than friendship. 

Jessi and I, in particular, bonded over Modern Baseball. Holy Ghost was our record of the summer in 2016. When she went to college in Akron the fall prior, the friend group unsurprisingly went on the backburner, save for our group chat. By the time I’d gotten to college that fall, I found new people in my dorm and began purposefully flaking on my hangouts with old friends. We were in different parts of Ohio at the time: Akron, Hiram, Southington, Ashland. The smallest inconveniences and jokes were leaving fissures in our conversations. I was to blame for a lot of the fallout, because I believed I was irreplaceable, that I could blow off our plans and never lose them. 

The final straw came when the rest of them were together and kept calling me, daring to show up at my dorm. I was with my shiny new college friends and wanted no part of it, so I freaked out and told them to stay away. They, rightfully, kicked me out of the group chat, and we didn’t talk for months. When I apologized, they did welcome me back, albeit hesitantly, into their lives. But things were never the same. None of them came to my grandmother’s calling hours, and group chat messages went unanswered for days at a time. We did our annual Christmas gift exchange over winter break, but the small, cheap gifts reflected the emotional turbulence in the air. We’d never be the same, and I’d continue tumbling further into the social economy of college’s unrelenting food chain and leaving my old life behind.

Sports was utopic for a kid like me, as Modern Baseball toed the line between self-reflective and self-obsessed. The songs are accessible, especially in how you can both live within them and consider them through retrospect. Maybe you are not in a place of heartbreak anymore, but surely you remember what it was once like to be, and that is why there is immense emotional wealth in the wordplay of Lukens and Ewald. When Lukens sings “You stole my heart like I stole your hometown lingo” in “Re-Done,” or when Ewald sings “Eight hours on the top of a bus/Just to find out in the end/I will never stop falling in love” in “Coals,” you can touch the hope, and you can reach far back into your own percussion and find the beats of a beautiful youth. 

At 24, I’ve finally made it to a place where I can accurately assess how bad of a person I was seven years ago. Most emo records don’t speak to the reckonings of adulthood, but Sports does. When you outgrow the overstimulation of spending uneventful hours getting stoned in dorm rooms you’ll never see again, the ash settles, and you can see your wrongs. Sports, amid the laments of fallen relationships and college debauchery, is a record about the friendships that outlast the breakups. When the final strums of “Coals” cease their melancholic vibrations, all that’s left are Ewald and Lukens, presiding over their grief together.

So when Modern Baseball announced the spring 2017 tour the next month, just as starting the band forever kept Ewald and Luken’s friendship in the same binary 10 years ago, my companionship with Jessi clicked back into place. We planned on going to the Columbus show together; we had a future to look forward to, even if the course of our lives that would unspool afterward was full of uncertainty. When the tour was canceled, our friendship turned a corner, and, miraculously, we became closer than ever. To this day, I never got to see Modern Baseball play live, but I think I prefer it that way.

After Sports started getting attention in late 2012, Ewald, Farmer and Lukens played shows in support. They’d never done anything beyond low-key sets in friends’ basements, and, since Ewald had recorded all of the drum parts himself, they needed a drummer. They tapped local Sean Huber to play percussion with them, and, before even turning 21 years old, the band embarked on their first American tour, doing DIY gigs in basements, VFW halls and bars across the country. 

Lukens and Ewald were each other’s great equalizer: Lukens had this nasally tenor and played their guitar a bit sporadically, while Ewald had a monotone, balanced vocal delivery and a patient poise in the way he performed. They traded vocals on songs like “Tears Over Bears,” “Hours Outside in the Snow” and “@Chl03k,” and perfected a unique versatility that was untapped in the emo DIY scenes they cherished so endlessly. They wrote a lot of songs about being young and going through various romances, which weren’t necessarily themes that emo and pop punk were lacking. What made them so different, though, was how genuine they all were.

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with Georgia Maq and Kelly-Dawn from Camp Cope, the Australian punk trio that opened for Modern Baseball in Sydney in January 2017 mere days before the announcement of their hiatus. I couldn’t help but ask them about their time spent with the Philadelphians, because the music of Modern Baseball had meant, and still means, so much to me. They humored my interests by gushing about the small acts of kindness Ewald, Lukens, Farmer and Huber showed them while on tour. Most palpably, when some of the venues they played at weren’t paying them fairly for their opening sets, Modern Baseball gave them part of their own take so they could afford to buy food and keep doing shows together. 

Modern Baseball wrote a lot about girls, but not in ways that fed into the disenfranchisement of young women in emo culture. The genre’s problematic, male-dominated apex was reached long before the #MeToo movement found the spotlight, around the time Sports and You’re Gonna Miss It All came out, which meant the stories of women being groped in mosh pits or groomed by predatory band members were often hushed by the industry. Modern Baseball approached it differently, though, by caring for the people buying tickets to their shows, whether it was through pausing shows to do wellness checks or cultivating inclusive environments around their music. 

In early January 2017, Lukens, Ewald, Farmer and Huber took the stage at the Metro Theatre in Sydney. While tumbling through a rendition of “The Weekend,” Lukens laughed through their line deliveries while Farmer and Ewald danced with each other across the stage. The four of them were having so much fun, as the crowd moshed themselves into a catharsis draped in red stage lights. One month later, the band would cancel their upcoming tours. Nine months after that, Modern Baseball would be gone.

After you’ve spent any chunk of your life with one specific group of people, you can never fully let go of them. I imagine Bren, Jake, Ian and Sean feel similarly, wherever they are. An old friend texts me and I leave him on read, uneager to rekindle any sort of bromance in fear that we’ll never get back to what we once were. But when he says “I love you,” the familiarity is all the same, and, within that, there is this long, enduring hope that someday, somewhere, we will reconvene. 

Sports came out in 2012, when I hadn’t yet learned what it meant to fall in love with someone for the sake of knowing them forever. I think back on the years when my friends and I were inseparable, and I can’t tell if I miss that part of my life or not. I don’t speak to most of them anymore, and there doesn’t seem to be a world where Modern Baseball play music together again. Yet I can still smell the basement we used to hang out in, just like I can still hear Bren Lukens singing “The Weekend” at a now-closed record store in Lakewood. “Though the white jacket didn’t fit/The friends I came with did, perfectly,” they sang, as a Northeast Ohio dusk came to rest above Madison Avenue outside. It was poetry. Four years later, I log into Apple Music and see that Jessi is listening to Sports, and I remember why we stuck it out. 

While covering a Swift track might bring a band some clout, it’s more telling of how influential she has been to artists regardless of genre. With Swift set to release her much-anticipated ninth studio album Midnights Oct. 21, we could be getting her most vulnerable album to date. Subsequently, we may even receive more innovative covers in the days that follow. 

Read more: 15 of Taylor Swift’s most emo songs ever, ranked

For now, these are the 10 best Taylor Swift scene covers to get you hyped for the release of her new album Midnights. 

We Came As Romans – ”I Knew You Were Trouble”

For volume 6 of the beloved Punk Goes Pop series, Detroit metalcore mainstays We Came As Romans supplied a radio-rock rendition of Swift’s hit single “I Knew You Were Trouble” from her now 10-year-old album Red (2012). Vocalists Dave Stephens and Kyle Pavone play off each other in stunning ways throughout the song, trading lines and offering a nice balance between the grit of Stephens’ voice and Pavone’s softer inflections. Pavone, who tragically passed away in 2018, demonstrated just how versatile he was as a vocalist with this cover. The music video alone garnering over 25 million views speaks for itself.

I Prevail – “Blank Space” 

The Detroit metalcore scene has proven to have a bit of a Swift obsession, and with I Prevail’s 2014 cover of Swift’s “Blank Space,” it managed to put the then-relatively unknown act on the map seemingly overnight. The cover’s music video is low budget and clearly very DIY, but the raw intensity and earnestness are what captivated audiences around the world — racking up over 75 million views on YouTube alone. I Prevail offered their now-signature sound for the cover, which features the soulful vocals of Brian Burkheiser and the guttural screams of Eric Vanlerbleghe, along with the band’s ability to create infectious melodies and impactful moments. With their modest cover of “Blank Space,” I Prevail proved to aspiring musicians that anything is possible if the timing is right and the music is good.

Dan Campbell (The Wonder Years)  – “All Too Well” 

Leave it to the Wonder Years frontman Dan Campbell to take an already powerful ballad such as “All Too Well” and manage to pull on our heartstrings even more than the original. Campbell has an uncanny ability to give the listener chills with his vulnerability as a performer and the somber tone his voice possesses, leading to one of the most touching covers of a Swift Song to date. Campbell’s cover of “All Too Well” was featured on the Bandcamp Taylor Swift compilation album ReRed which also featured prominent voices in the scene such as Future Teens and Chris Farren, with all proceeds from the release going to the Equal Justice Initiative. To this day, Campbell still performs the powerful cover live at his solo shows regularly, so you be sure to have your phone and/or lighter ready to pull out.

Our Last Night – “Look What You Made Me Do” 

In the mid-2010s New England metalcore act Our Last Night made the transition from being a modest and reliable act within the scene to becoming major cover artists – utilizing YouTube and social media to grow their band and give rock-inspired new life to current pop hits. Our Last Night was quick to cover Taylor Swift’s polarizing 2017 hit “Look What You Made Me Do” and managed to transform the original composition into a blast of progressive metalcore with an array of tapping guitar parts, breakdowns, emo melodies and visceral scream patterns.

For All Those Sleeping – “You Belong With Me” 

When you look back at the over-the-top metalcore of the early 2010s with its excessive breakdowns, electronics, mechanical drums and auto-tuned vocals – it has admittedly not aged very well. However, it is impossible to deny how fun and nostalgic this style of music truly was. For the fourth volume of the Punk Goes Pop series, For All Those Sleeping did a perfectly on-brand metalcore cover of Taylor Swift’s beloved single “You Belong With Me” – capturing the sound of 2011 perfectly. 

YUNGBLUD – “Cardigan” 

Back in 2020, when YUNGBLUD stopped by BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, the British pop-rock sensation brought out his tender side with a stripped-down acoustic performance, acompanied by an orchestral string section. For the special performance, YUNGBLUD did a rendition of Taylor Swift’s Folklore single “Cardigan” and even managed to create a powerful medley with Avril Lavigne’s classic ballad “I’m With You.” Using those two iconic, YUNGLBUD has never sounded more vulnerable.

Fame On Fire – “…Ready For It” 

Fame On Fire certainly brought the heat with their rendition of the Reputation classic “…Ready For It” and most definitely captured the intensity and attitude of Swift’s original composition. Trading in booming 808s for pummeling breakdowns proved to be very effective for Fame On Fire’s cover of the song. The addition of an arena rock chorus of anthemic proportions elevated the classic song without losing the spirit of its source material.

Twenty One Two – “Blank Space” 

Swedish pop duo Twenty One Two have made a name for themselves covering major pop hits and breathing new life into them in fresh ways. For their cover of Swift’s “Blank Space” the duo provide a burst of frenetic pop-punk energy with emotive vocals, sugar-sweet harmonies and double-time drum beats. Twenty One Two’s cover sounds akin to major pop-punk acts such as Neck Deep and State Champs but also retains a high level of originality making this a cover that simply feels good.

Alex Melton – “Love Story” 

YouTuber, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Alex Melton has become synonymous with his innovative covers of classic and contemporary pop hits Including several for Taylor Swift) that he manages to churn out on a regular basis for his 300k-plus subscribers. For his cover of Swift’s 2008 hit single “Love Story,” Melton channels the energy and catchiness of late 2000s neon-emo in the vein of classic groups such as Boys Like Girls, All Time Low and The Friday Night Boys that does the original song justice in more ways than one. 

MUNA – ”August” 

Indie-pop trio and Alternative Press Issue #407 cover stars MUNA recently stopped by the acclaimed Electric Lady Studios in New York City – a space where legendary artists have penned some of their biggest hits over the years, including Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones, to name a few. During their time in the studio, the trio recorded several stripped-down renditions of songs from their recently released self-titled album as part of the Live at Electric Lady EP exclusively for Spotify. Additionally, the group performed an ethereal and delicate cover of Taylor Swift’s ballad “August” and the result couldn’t be more powerful. Brimming with stunning acoustics and lush vocal harmonies, the band adds a palpable sense of warmth and ambiance that resonates throughout the entirety of the performance.