Emery – The Question

In the last year, everyone heard the name Emery. Their debut CD, The Weak’s End blew up instantly when it was released January of last year and has gone on to sell over 64 thousand copies. Every where you went, the name Emery was being tossed around – they were easily one of the breakout artists of the year so to say that their sophomore album, The Question, was highly anticipated is an extreme understatement. And yet, when the album was finally released, it came and gone without much fuss for some reason. But after a few listens, its fairly obvious why it passed without much notice.

With The Weak’s End, every song stood out and were memorable (particularlyFractions, Walls and The Ponytail Parade). Where as, on The Question, Emery have only supplied their listeners with two songs which stand out and will be able to survive on their own. Those two songs come in the form of Studying Politics and Listening To Freddie Mercury. Those two songs show what Emery is capable of doing. Melodic, catchy and harmonious vocals that flow through your speakers flawlessly and get stored into your memory shattered by blistering screams that pull you back to reality before shooting right back into the more melodic and smooth vocals again. Everything is mixed perfectly and evenly, from the dual guitar attack to the keyboard layered throughout the background. These two songs are what emo should be. Passionate, moving, focused and profound, they are simply amazing songs. The rest however, fall short.

For every area that Studying Politics and Listening To Freddie Mercury stand out in, the remaining eight tracks are forgettable in. Now, the songs aren’t bad, they are still pretty good and are songs that most bands would love to be able to write. Its just that we’ve come to expect more from Emery. Instead of making the songs stand out, they tend to just mold together and become easy to pass by with little or no regard. And while songs like Miss Behavin’ help put a bit more faith back into the band, they then cut to the thirty second In Between 4th And 2nd Street, which only works to cut them back down a step to where they were before Miss Behavin’.

The Question will still help keep some people entertained, but really, it is a fairly generic emo album. It will be able to hold some people over, but could really use a extra kick to it. Maybe it was just a sophomore slump, but hopefully their third album will pick up where Listening To Freddie Mercury left off.