10 Albums That Will Make You Love Emo

At the end of 1994, rock didn't really know what it wanted to be anymore. As much as it looked like grunge was going to become one of the defining genres of the entire decade, everything crumbled apart once Kurt Cobain passed away, leaving most of the rock scene in limbo about where to go next. Everyone just seemed burnt out over all the morbid stuff, and it took a band like Sunny Day Real Estate to put it into words.

Though the legacy of this band has gotten a bit complicated because of Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith eventually joining the Foo Fighters, Diary remains one of the first flawless emo albums ever released, with songs like 7 and In Circles really being the benchmark for what the genre would become in the next decade. Even though you can tell that these guys are still figuring things out and cribbing from influences from the grunge scene, every single song on this record has the potential to be any lesser emo band's greatest hit, from the pretty guitar leads sprinkled throughout the mix and Jeremy Enigk's vocals sounding just bratty enough to anchor everything down.

As much as some fans might swear by albums from the likes of Blink-182 from around the same time, this was the moment where the punk side of the genre and the darkness really collided, leaving the rest of the scene to make their own version of chaos. The nerves may have been a little bit frayed here, but it also might be the closest the genre had come to capturing pure emotion onto a tape.