I say this all the time when I write about emo, but as Midwesterners, this stuff runs through our veins. If you’re a rock fan who grew up in the ’90s, you were exposed to it constantly, either at small punk shows or through the genre’s more commercial iterations on alternative radio in the form of bands like Hum and Jimmy Eat World, and regardless of how lame you thought this music was initially, you start to crave it after a while. Dramatic tempos; anguished vocals; loud/soft dynamics; and post-hardcore crash and bang—this shit just sounds like home, and there’s something liberating about hearing a band embrace them fully.
Featuring former members of the short-lived, grungy punk group Pretty Wounds, Milwaukee’s Estates went full emo on their 2013 debut Gleam, demonstrating a remarkable fluency in the genre’s late-’90s tropes. They had the sound nailed from the get go, but on their new self-titled EP, they have the songs to match. The dynamics are more combustible, the choruses more memorable and the riffs more gripping. No less than four of these six songs sound like solid singles candidate—a success rate that even many of the band’s influences couldn’t claim back in the day.
Estates’ self-titled cassette comes out later this month. In the meantime, stream it below, via Bandcamp.
