Christie Front Drive

As I was revisiting Sunny Day Real Estate's How It Feels To Be Something On, I randomly stumbled upon this album. After doing a little bit of research, it seems to be one of those hidden emo gems. This record has everything you would want in an emo record: loud/soft dynamics, odd meters, the classic emotive vocal delivery, and guitars with a real twang. Another thing that I picked up on is that this band likes to use key changes which definitely perked me up the first time I heard it.

Of the albums ten tracks, six are your standard emo cuts and the rest serve as interludes. These shorter interludes I could take or leave. They don't really offer anything too interesting, but they are short enough to not feel like the album is being interrupted. The other tracks are great though. I really like the live and raw feeling the album has. For example, I can hear the drummer keeping time as it bleeds into the other microphones in the quieter parts. There are also times when the band isn't all that much in sync as the tempo shifts ahead and behind in parts. It makes me feel like I'm witnessing a moment between the band members rather than just a stale, perfectly quantized recording.

If there was one thing to complain about this record, it's that by the end, it feels like singer Eric Richter starts to recycle the same melodies and vocal deliveries. I get that in music of this style, it's perhaps more about the emotion of the performance and not so much about the melody or technique. However, when compared to the vocals of a band like Sunny Day Real Estate, I can't help but feel like the vocals leave a little more to be desired. Regardless, this is a pretty great emo record and definitely an essential listen for any fan of this genre.