10 Albums That Will Make You Love Emo

Over the past few years, emo has had a much different face than it had during the boom of the MySpace era of the genre. For as much as bands like Fall Out Boy might still be able to draw a crowd with their pop flavored version of the genre, the heart of emo these days is more in the Midwest, with bands that play super clean guitar licks over some fairly tortured lyrics. It might be a new spin on the scene, but American Football was really the breeding ground for what that sound was supposed to be.

Because if you go through any song on this band's debut record, you're going to find some of the prettiest guitar lines you've heard in your life, as if Steve Holmes is trying to find different harmonies that you didn't even know were possible. That's before you even get into the guitar tunings on here, which are always slightly off to give the tracks an ethereal sense of harmony all the way through.

For all the great music on here though, this is the kind of emo record that should be reserved for a certain stripe of rock fan. These guys are much more soft even for fans of acts like the Get Up Kids, but in this case it almost doesn't matter. When you need an outlet for your internal angst, you don't always need to bang your head to it. Sometimes you just need some sort of relief, and these songs could practically be prescribed to you for how soothing they can be.