Blog On The Motorway

Cross Blogination is a project I’m doing with Diary Of A Ledger, whereby every fortnight one of us will recommend to the other one of our all time favourite albums, which we will then both write a review for, one from a fanboy perspective, the other from a neutral standpoint. This is the second review in the series, suggested by Gray.

It was inevitable that over the course of this project, one of us would suggest an album that the other is already familiar with, and so it is with great pleasure that I discard my neutral standpoint and once again review one of my favourite albums.

Emo is a dirty dirty word. Over the course of this decade it’s become more and more alienated from the ‘emotional hardcore’ it started as and worked its way into the mainstream, ending up with the likes of MCR and Fall Out Boy playing to stadiums of screaming teenage girls.

Emo has run the same course as any other big scene, but for once it was not the founders of  the scene who made it big, save for the likes of Jimmy Eat World. But here Rival Schools provided the blueprint for a scene still in its infancy, and to me it’s never been bettered.

Frontman Walter Schreifels is no stranger to this phenomenon. He was in one of the great early hardcore bands, Gorilla Biscuits, then moved on to perfecting Post-Hardcore with Quicksand. But with Rival Schools he allowed melody to overcome the riffs and created a pop-punk masterpiece that swaggers with emotion without ever feeling overly angst ridden or cliched.

From the epic chorus of ‘Travel By Telephone,’ the Weezer on steroids pomp of ‘Everything Has Its Point’ and the post hardcore sheen of ‘High Acetate’ the start of the album is peerless.  But it’s when the pace slows for ‘Undercovers On’ and Walter’s cracked voice shimmers with emotion that you really understand what a perfect piece of work this album is.

After the four opening songs come the two singles, ‘Good Things’ and Used For Glue’ both of which have the punchy swagger of Walter’s previous band, married to epic choruses that most bands would kill for.

If there are any complaints to be had about this album, it would be that the second half of the album doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the first half.  While still good songs, ‘Holding Sand’ and ‘Favourite Star’ never quite pack the same punch, although ‘The Switch,’ with it’s beefy downtuned riff, is excellent.

But any album that holds seven or eight instant classics over the course of thriteen songs cannot really be called a disappointment, and it’s telling that since then Walter has struggled to find a band that he feels lives up to his standards, going back occasionally to his previous outfits rather than starting new ones. Indeed Rival Schools are currently reformed and touring, so one can only hope that the promise held by this debut can one day be realised with a sophomore effort.

As always, please now go and go HERE to find out what Gray thought of it all.