Context – Chipping away at the old To-Do List

Emo Spring continues with a band I found from Spotify’s “More Like This” that comes up when I’m done listening to Modern Baseball (like I’m ever done, yea right).  Moose Blood is part of the emo revival–more comparable to Joyce Manor than Remo Drive.  This band is thoughtful and dealing with mid-twenties problems, as in the opening track “Cherry”.

I really, really like “Cherry”.  This is the song that keeps coming up on the “More Like This” playlist, and I love it every time.  I had to do a bit of song-skimming to make sure I was picking the right album.  “Cherry” is one of the heaviest songs I’ve heard in a long time, but in a heavy heart kind of way more so than a metal way.  I love this song so much I paused the album like 4 times to relisten to the song.  It reminds me a lot of Ben Folds Five’s “Brick” crashing into Bush’s “Glycerin” after watching Revolutionary Road too many times.

The line “she’s not mine and it fucking kills me she won’t look at me that way” breaks my heart every time I hear it, so I should probably quit listening to this song on repeat.  As a stand-alone line that seems way more angsty than it is in the context of the song, I promise the line delivers when the song arrives there.  If you’ve ever been way in over your head with a relationship and watched it crumble despite your best intentions this song is for you.  Plus or minus baby drama.

The rest of the album is really good, most of it going in a sonicly different direction than an album opening with “Cherry” would otherwise suggest.  Not that “Cherry” feels out of place in the band’s repertoire, but there is more energy and instrumentation than “Cherry” presents on this album.

So yea, Moose Blood.  Emo for post-college kids who dig the aesthetic but want to hear about problems more relevant to their current circumstances.