Fall is in full swing, which means flannel wearing friends across the country are gathering around bonfires and jamming to emo music. Crisp air, late nights, and deep conversations make fall the most emo season of all. Perhaps the album that best encapsulates this feeling is Modern Baseball’s You’re Gonna Miss It All.
Philly-based emo act Modern Baseball has only been active for a few years, but in that time, they’ve become staples in the emo scene for their relatable lyrics of insecure youths growing up in a time where they don’t feel like they have a purpose. Their 2014 album You’re Gonna Miss It All nails this theme perfectly. Told from the perspective of an emotional college student, the album deals with friendship, unrequited love, jealousy, and insecurity. While other emo albums like American Football deal with similar themes, YGMIA stands out by triumphantly celebrating these feelings rather than loathing them. Singer Brendan Lukens sings of all of the things he’d like to do in the future, yet laments how he’s not taking any of the necessary steps. He describes the relatable college student plight of feeling culturally “smart”, but not feeling book smart. He recalls fumbling relationships, drunken nights, and worrying his friends by opening up to them. The songwriting is ironically, confident in itself. The emotions that Brenden are feeling feel very authentic and real. They seem even reassuring, almost saying that he’s telling the listeners that what they’re feeling is normal and that they should accept themselves for their romantic, whimsical flaws. The instrumentation combines acoustic indie rock with the energy of pop punk, which helps listeners romanticize their feelings of insecurity. The powerful, ballad-like hooks bring energy and passion to a genre that typically focuses on restrained loneliness. Infectious riffs perfectly compliment the chest-thumping insecurity of the songwriting, switching between dialed back acoustic punk and folksy indie rock.
I first heard this album while driving with my longtime best friend Brett driving into Chicago for a house show. As we drove in silence, we soaked in the lyrics, reassuring ourselves of our youthful confusion and insecurity. And for a little bit, we didn’t feel so emo after all.
