Another one of my favorite bands is Emery. These guys have been around since about 2001, releasing their first album, "The Weak's End", in 2003. Emery has been one of the most recognizable bands on Tooth and Nail records and have also been noted as one of the hardest working bands today. They released their second album, "The Question", in 2005, which garnered much acclaim among the indie scene. "The Question" has been one of the most interesting and defining albums I have ever listened to. The album is balanced very nicely, so you're not listening to a ton of songs that sound similar in a row. I still have yet to find an album that I personally feel stands up to some of the standards that Emery pulled off with "The Question".
Emery has a real knack for incorporating diversity in their songs. They can be screaming, loud, and in your face the one minute, and then melodic and ambient the next. A great example of this comes from their latest album released in 2007, "I'm Only A Man". The song I am referring to is "Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus". This song seamlessly goes from rock to pop, then rock again, then back to pop one more time before slamming you at the end with a short blast of screamo. Although I feel that "I'm Only A Man" is Emery's best full-length yet, it was put down by a lot of people because it was not quite as "loud" as their previous efforts. Basically all I mean by that is that there was less screaming on the album, which seemed to bum some people.
Recently, Emery put out an EP called "When Broken Hearts Prevail". I love it, and many older fans love it because the band seemed to pull from their older sound for the songs on the EP. All this means is that their was a little more screaming in these songs, but like I said, Emery is great at keeping things balanced. One cool thing Emery does on this EP is that they have two songs that are in a way essentially the same as far as chord proggression, etc. However, each version has a different set of lyrics as well as a different sound dynamically. One is fast and louder, the other is softer and more chilled.
Some notebly cool things about Emery include the fact that the band has essentially two lead vocalists, Toby and Devin. When Toby is up front, Devin does backing vocals and plays bass. Then when Devin is singing lead, Toby takes care of the bass and backing vocals. Again, this really adds to the diversity of their songs. Another nice thing about Emery is their lyrics. While they do often sing about bad relationships and that sort of thing, the never sound corny or cliched, which is nice because we have enough cheesey "girl I need you" break-up songs.
As with any other band that I have, or will talk about, ultimately you should just check them out for yourself to see if they sound like something you would like blasting through your speakers. Emery is certainly a great choice in my book.
Emery is:
Toby Morrell, vocals and bass
Devin Shelton, vocals and bass
Josh Head, keyboards, screaming, and additional percussion
Matt Carter, guitar
Dave Powell, drums
albums:
"The Weak's End" 2003
"The Question" 2005
"I'm Only A Man" 2007
"When Broken Hearts Prevail EP" 2008
Emery has a real knack for incorporating diversity in their songs. They can be screaming, loud, and in your face the one minute, and then melodic and ambient the next. A great example of this comes from their latest album released in 2007, "I'm Only A Man". The song I am referring to is "Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus". This song seamlessly goes from rock to pop, then rock again, then back to pop one more time before slamming you at the end with a short blast of screamo. Although I feel that "I'm Only A Man" is Emery's best full-length yet, it was put down by a lot of people because it was not quite as "loud" as their previous efforts. Basically all I mean by that is that there was less screaming on the album, which seemed to bum some people.
Recently, Emery put out an EP called "When Broken Hearts Prevail". I love it, and many older fans love it because the band seemed to pull from their older sound for the songs on the EP. All this means is that their was a little more screaming in these songs, but like I said, Emery is great at keeping things balanced. One cool thing Emery does on this EP is that they have two songs that are in a way essentially the same as far as chord proggression, etc. However, each version has a different set of lyrics as well as a different sound dynamically. One is fast and louder, the other is softer and more chilled.
Some notebly cool things about Emery include the fact that the band has essentially two lead vocalists, Toby and Devin. When Toby is up front, Devin does backing vocals and plays bass. Then when Devin is singing lead, Toby takes care of the bass and backing vocals. Again, this really adds to the diversity of their songs. Another nice thing about Emery is their lyrics. While they do often sing about bad relationships and that sort of thing, the never sound corny or cliched, which is nice because we have enough cheesey "girl I need you" break-up songs.
As with any other band that I have, or will talk about, ultimately you should just check them out for yourself to see if they sound like something you would like blasting through your speakers. Emery is certainly a great choice in my book.
Emery is:
Toby Morrell, vocals and bass
Devin Shelton, vocals and bass
Josh Head, keyboards, screaming, and additional percussion
Matt Carter, guitar
Dave Powell, drums
albums:
"The Weak's End" 2003
"The Question" 2005
"I'm Only A Man" 2007
"When Broken Hearts Prevail EP" 2008
What a great band. Found them in 2005 and listened to a couple of songs off of "The Question." I should look up more from them.
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