My Chemical Romance ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'' (2004)

My Chemical Romance is one of those bands you listen as a teen, cringe at after a year and then come back to later on to wallow in it's nostalgia and find a new appreciation for it's edgy lyrics and emo/screamo influences. Although this album is MCR's second release they ditched a large part of the screamo that made up their debut album ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''. 

With 12 songs, and interlude and 39 minutes of listening time this album is jampacked with incredible songs, personal favourites would be ''Helena", the first track on this record, it immediately sets the mood with dark tones and mystifying vibes. ''Give 'Em Hell, Kid'', which utilises this band's incredible instrumentals and Gerard Way's paralyzing vocals. And many other songs that I love, but the truth is, not a single one of these songs is lacklustre, all of them have their unique quirks and tones. Alt Rock, Emo, Post Hardcore and Punk Rock are all ways to describe this album and band but none of that quite does their revolutionary sound justice, thriving off of gnarly riffs and almost scary screams is something they excelled at, cementing their sound and the genre of emo. 

Shout along choruses, machine gun fast drumming, horror themes,  guitar with huge Metal influences, complex song structures and a generally raw feel created the incredible sound that is this My Chemical romance, even in songs that feel lighter like ''The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You'' we don't get given peace, we are still bombarded with catchy hooks and Metal tinged riffs, in a good way of course.

An album like this has so much you can say about it but I do not know enough about this record or it's history to write it all down for you, all I can say is that this 12 song masterpiece is a must listen to anyone

9/10

 PUP ''Morbid Stuff'' (2019)

Pup is a band I've found about a year ago now, with their explosive sound, earnest screams, and lyrics I could do nothing but love them, with their objectively amazing debut album ''PUP'' and the slightly more experimental and lacklustre ''The Dream Is Over'' I was interested what the next album would hold for me but I was pleasantly surprised to hear more of the same quirks that this band made their own. With heavy and angsty themes such as anxiety, depression and death and the Punk Rock sound this record holds was driven home further.

Utilising songs like ''Closure'' and ''See You At Your Funeral'' PUP addresses that having things left unsaid and that unhappy endings are always an inevitable part of life, along with other valuable life lessons, something the band felt necessary to do seeing they've gone through a few changes since their first album, mainly in numbers. 

With this record PUP refuses to be held back by the Pop Punk label often held against them, embracing pop-tinged melodies on ''See You At Your Funeral'' or going for the whole campfire sing-alongs on the start of ''Scorpion Hill'' and let's not forget to mention the incredible ''Full Blown Meltdown'' which tip toes the lines of Metal with their sludgy, heavy guitar and drums, this record does it all without shame. That's one of the many things to love about this album, frontman Stefan Babcock wasn't afraid to write about his struggle with mental health. Depression and anxiety isn't something to glorify and PUP talks about it the way they do best, through dark tones and tunes that go straight for the jugular.

The guitars are something to embrace from this 4 man band, even if lyrics get a little dull the guitar stays energetic and interesting throughout. PUP has had a knack for memorable riffs and small licks since their debut, on this record they've done it tighter, darker and better resulting in the catchy song ''Kids'' or like mentioned above the sludgy and heavy ''Full Blown Meltdown'', one of my personal favourites on this album. ''City'' also has a different tone for the majority of the song, slow drums and playful guitar strums over sad vocal tones only for the song to start building up around the 2 minute mark and crash into spastic breakdowns near the end. 

8/10

 Weezer ''Weezer'' (1994)

For the first post on this Blog it's only appropriate I start with one of the first albums I listened in actual album form. Weezer's blue album was the first album I listened to that wasn't something young me had picked up on the radio in car rides with my mom, when getting this album recommended to me somewhere online I was very reluctant to listen to it, and rightfully so, the grungy electric guitar wasn't something you ever heard in the Alan Walker or Imagine Dragon songs I used to religiously listen to.

The blue album was Weezer's debut and also the high of their career, there now are fantastic individual tracks who rank a bit higher on total amount of listens or copies sold but overall the blue album is yet to be beat. The grunge electric guitar is amazing and the drums and riffs are kept quite simplistic with lyrics that are easy to follow which makes these songs so satisfying to listen to, I still get Buddy Holly stuck in my head occasionally.

The intense geekiness of Weezer and this album is very apparent in the album cover and lyrics, but the sound is a page straight out of Nirvana's book who Rivers was massively inspired by, yet the band made this their own album, with enormous hooks and incredibly catchy riffs, melodies and lyrics. 

Weezer has been constantly growing and developing their sound which is almost sad to see, you can see the numbers dwindling in comparison to their origins but I will not look at the blue album and think ''Oh we could have had more of this'' but instead I am happy that there is no album that's a straight repeat.

6/10