15 Greatest Emo Albums Of All Time

This is music designed to put you on edge. Sunny Day Real Estate, arguably the key band of early ‘90s emo, did not make songs for zoning out or easy listening. This is a serious record, replete with great riffs and musicianship, and no end of tension.

That it’s still great fun, and more to the point so deep, says a lot about the craft that the band put into their debut. Opener “Seven” is a journey in itself, with the jagged but pretty intro quickly shifting gears into something breathless and desperate, then morphing into a heavy guitar chug towards the end.

Centrepiece "The Blankets Were the Stairs" takes the quiet/loud dynamic to its most contrasting, with a featherweight verse dropping into a monstrous stomp of a chorus. Holding it all together is singer Jeremy Enigk, whose mournful but stringent vocal stylings are among the best in the genre.

Diary is thick and muscular, but with no less introspection and thoughtfulness than its title would suggest. It aims straight for the gut, but it offers a great deal for the head and heart alike.