Emo punk anthems inmusicare so funbecause they frequently hide so many layers of emotion inside only a handful of guitar chords and the thumping head-nod of percussion. They’re beloved because they’re often a sympathetic reflection of those more contemporary, hormone-laden teenage years filled to the brim with loud sounds, even louder emotions, and the struggling desire to be comprehended over both of those constantly yelling voices.
Because of this, for a certain generational range, just having those emo punk anthems played over a speaker islike a Pavlovian comfort response to being heardand understood all over again.It also didn’t hurt that when emo punk anthems were truly at their peak, these bands were makinggoodsongs.
The chords rocked, the drums hit just right, and the lyrics were directed with an in-your-face sense of purpose. They might have been angry, and they might have been resentful, butthey were so often cuttingly profoundin their approach. These songs are still like bullets from a gun; time may have aged them along with the years, but if you get in their way, they’re still going to cut you down in a wash of blood… that gets personal.
10The All-American Rejects, “Dirty Little Secret”
The Secrets & Regrets
Oklahoma-area rockers The All-American Rejectsdropped the song “Dirty Little Secret” as the lead single from their 2005 LPMove Along. Whether they knew it at the time of creating the song or not, their anthemis still possessed of a hook-laden draw that’s almost irritating in how effective it is at getting into your headand making you sing along to it. Give it a few replays, and you’ll be in that state of mind faster than you can blink.
“Dirty Little Secret” also has that electric, forbidden feeling to it, as the lyrics are, as the title suggests, about keeping potentially scandalous information away from others that we don’t want them to know. Just think ofthe rollercoaster of teenagers playing the telephone game or trying to stop the spread of juicy gossip.It’s thrilling, it’s frightening, it’s exhilarating, and it’s that dirty little secret. Keep it hidden, if you’re able to manage.
9Jimmy Eat World, “Kill”
Murdering Away The Breakup Game
“Kill” emerged from the band Jimmy Eat World’s 2004 fifth studio album,Futures, and begins with a deceptively stripped-down acoustic opening before hammering into a mile-wide rocked-out chorus that wears its heart on its sleeve.Futuresalmost feels like a contrarian title when compared to “Kill,” which weaves a bright red-raw tapestry of a narrator on the verge of a relationship’s breakup. The future isn’t now, but the singercan’t make up their mind about cutting the string.
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“Kill” makes the ache of what seems like the inevitable feel like a tight space that can’t be clawed out. That narrator feels like they’re expendable to the person that they care so much about, but no matter how much they try, they just can’t walk away. They’re getting drunk in their hotel and being hurt as their grievances are aired out in an empty place.Despite the blood, they continue to take the punches in the ring.
8Fall Out Boy, “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”
Pure Punk Rock Defiance
This track has always really known how to put the thunk ofpunkinto a good ol' fashioned, timeless emo punk rock anthem. Fall Out Boygot plenty of heads eagerly banging along with the release of “Sugar, We’re Goin Down,” the lead single off of their second album, 2005’sFrom Under the Cork Tree. While it initiallycomes off as a bit of a nonsensical song built more on style than substance,“Sugar” still has some sweetness mixed into its salty exterior.
Fall Out Boy got plenty of heads eagerly banging along with the release of “Sugar, We’re Goin Down.”
As the track comes thrashing down, the lyrics behind it really do feel like they’re attached to a sort of surreal love story (much like the music video). The person feels strange about who they are, and it might be them and their lover against the world (or against each other), butthey’ll be damned if they’re going to lose their connection without putting up a fight. They’re going to be that person’s number one with a bullet, and there are few more serious commitments than that.
7Taking Back Sunday, “You’re So Last Summer”
The Obsessions Of Love
The band Taking Back Sunday ripped out of Amityville, New York, with a bang on their debut album,Tell All Your Friends,in 2002. While the single “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)” tends to take the lion’s share of attention on this album, ninth track “You’re So Last Summer” rides in on this oneas arguably the most underrated and perhaps even the most tortured.
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Over some blistering power chords, “You’re So Last Summer” references being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t value it as much as the central character. For them, it’s an outdated place, while it means everythingto the singer. They’rewilling to lie, change, and deceive if they have to just to keep this person, with dark results if they can’t. Just read these lyrics; how could “You’re So Last Summer"notbe one of the greatest emo punk rock anthems?
I’d never lie to you, unless I had to
I’ll do what I got to
Unless I had to
The truth is you could slit my throat
And with my own last gasping breath
I’d apologize for bleeding on your shirt
6Dashboard Confessional, “Screaming Infidelities”
Denials Of A Lost Breakup
While many might consider punk rock to always be based around the bleary screel of electric guitars, a good emo punk rock anthem can also be gestated in the acoustic realm as well. Florida-based rockers Dashboard Confessional,led by frontman Chris Carrabba, continuously proved this to be true, especially with the song “Screaming Infidelities” off of their 2000 debut LP,The Swiss Army Romance.
The lyrics here also attack straight to the heart, as Carrabba laments the loss of a relationshiphe still can’t comprehend after reading the breakup note.He’s drinking and wondering where she is and if she’s with someone else at this point, already being unfaithful to what they had together. It’s already wearing him down just to ponder it.
5Brand New, “Seventy Times 7”
The Brutality Of Friendship Breaking
What would you do if you felt betrayed by the actions of a friend? We got to find an answer to that question with the friendship fallout betweenBrand Newvocalist Jesse Lacey and Taking Back Sundayguitarist John Nolan that led to Lacey penning the song “Seventy Times 7.” The track (which emerged on the group’s 2001 debut album,Your Favorite Weapon) was allegedly madebecause Nolan made a move on a girl that Lacey had a crush on before Lacey could.
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Taking Back Sunday wrote a response song called “There’s No ‘I’ In Team,” but “Seventy Times 7” is a vicious takedownfilled with enough venomous teenage angst to take down an elephant.Lacey and Nolan eventually made up (or so it seemed), though it’s difficult to imagine how that occurred after “Seventy Times 7,” especially with lyrics like these:
So, is that what you call a getaway?
Tell me what you got away with
Cause I’ve seen more spine in jellyfish
I’ve seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids
Have another drink and drive yourself home
I hope there’s ice on all the roads
And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt
And again when your head goes through the windshield
4Sugarcult, “Memory”
Putting Old Memories On Blast
Go and put this on in your car as you drive with the windows rolled all the way down.This ode to reminiscing about the memories and the rollercoaster of a past chaotic relationship debuted on rock band Sugarcult’s second studio album, 2004’sPalm Trees and Power Lines. There’s something to be said about the bad hormone-driven decisions we make as teenagers that’s exemplified so perfectly by the journey of this song.
There’s something to be said about the bad hormone-driven decisions we make as teenagers that’s exemplified so perfectly by the journey of this song.
We might know how bad those choices were (especially with 20/20 hindsight), but there’s still somethingso tantalizing about the thrill and electricity of the good parts - or at least what felt like the good parts.Even if it’s “on again, off again,” as “Memory” states so eloquently, get back to the disaster;my heart’s beating faster, can I be your memory?
3Yellowcard, “Ocean Avenue”
Longing For The Disappeared
Originating as the third track off of a 2003 album of the same name, Yellowcard automatically qualified themselves for a place in emo punk anthem iconography with the release of “Ocean Avenue.“Written about a street in the band’s hometownof Jacksonville, Florida, the track has that feeling ofpursuing the fleeting freedom of youth and that life might improve if that fast lane could be found again.
This is almost ironic, as the narrator here, in a way, seems to want to leave everything behind by going back to the days they could sleep all day and stay up all night.Are we so often in a losing battle of trying to run back to our past?
2My Chemical Romance, “Helena”
Angered By The Loss Of Connection
The band My Chemical Romance’s second studio album,Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,dropped in 2004, with lead-off track “Helena” as the angry, emotional centerpiece of it all. The group of New Jerseyites created the anthemic song as lead singer Gerard Way’s response to hisself-hatred over not being present at the end of his grandmother’s life and getting to be there for her more.
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“Helena” feels like a song of very basic emotions, but there’s more depth to it the more that you peek underneath. It captures well what we often feel about the death of someone we care about and not getting to take advantage of all the time we could have spent with them.Don’t get to a place where you’re made to live with those regrets, because they are permanent, and when we lose something or someone meaningful in that way, it doesn’t come back. Spend time with your “Helena” before the time is gone.
1The Spill Canvas, “All Hail The Heartbreaker”
An Ode To Personal Destruction
The Spill Canvas were yet another band that got right to the central heart of a great emo punk rock anthem with “All Hail The Heartbreaker.” Hailing from the group’s 2004 record,Sunsets & Car Crashes, we again touch onthe subject of a lost relationship and the fallout the impact is having on the singer here. It almost seemed like a topic that would get worn out from all the takes on it from this genre, but it just seemed like there were always new poets to define it in a fresh way.
While there are always two sides to these stories, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the narrator, because they hit all the raw cues of emotion in a relatable, human way. That’s true of all the songs on this list; they don’tattempt to win Pulitzers for English or dazzle with prophetic poetry. They just come at you with the type of pain we’ve all experienced at one time or another and can understand.
They just come at you with the type of pain we’ve all experienced at one time or another and can understand.
So, all hail the emo punk rock anthem. May they all live on forever in the ether to get us through the days and times of our lives - no matter how big or small the moment.
