
Something to Write Home About
Released
For their second album, The Get Up Kids married the jangly, arty strand of ‘90s midwestern emo to the structure of the more straight-ahead Jawbreaker rock sound. The effect is electrifying, and the songs show how creative and cathartic emo could be at its best. Expertly paced tracks like the communal “Out of Reach” and sardonic “The Company Dime” crackle with life, and “Ten Minutes” even adds a little swagger to its celebratory wonder. In the final stretch of emo’s long life as a niche underground subgenre, The Get Up Kids both solidified and perfected the direction it would ultimately take into the mainstream.