album review ! :3
broadway - kingdoms (2009)
xxherlastwalkxx 05/04/2024
hey everyone. sorry for the wait on this review. i'm busy and stressed to say the least. the schools year is done very soon so hopefully i'll be more active. i know i keep saying that. bear with me.
this is broadway's first album, and it's a great example of the posthardcore genre if i do say so myself. there's some really beautiful songwriting on the whole album, but some of my favorite songs are "meg ryan would play you in the movie" and "same thing we do everyday pinky." the album does a great job of being neither too hateful nor too sappy, a line that is walked by many great emo bands. there are some things you wouldn't expect to hear in emo music, such as the bluesy attitude of "gotta love that southern charm." there are plenty of spots on the album that feel somewhat experimental, especially when compared to the emo tendency towards cliche. cliches can be done well, don't get me wrong, it's just to say that this album is able to stand out in ways that not all emo can. it sort of reminds me of on frail wings of vanity and wax, though comparatively more conventional. it's more harmonically dense than your average emo album, but still subscribes to some genre cliches like unnecessary autotune (this is a good thing) and THE emo chord progression (i'll write an article on that in a bit. more on that later). all that is to say that it's uncoventional in some aspects but no so far out there that it's hard to read as an emo album, if that makes sense. genres are just made up labels but i'm comfortable calling this "emo," i should say.
all that aside, it's just good music. as mentioned before, "meg ryan" and "same thing we do everyday" are beautiful songs that speak for themselves. i also love "last saturday," which has some interesting rhythms and a very pretty chorus, and "prom queen has no friends," which is not only a wonderfully dramatic closer to the album, but also fulfills the emo quota for at least one gratuitous use of the idea of a prom queen. thanks, broadway. and while i can't say i understand all of the lyrics simply by listening, what i can hear or have read are worthy of the music they're set to. especially "same thing we do everyday," but maybe i'm just a sucker for that desperate-yet-somehow-hopeful sort of emo poetry that it has. i'll leave you with a quote and a recommendation to listen to the album if you have not already:
I've escaped this feeling, it's back and
I know that it's not right, I know that it's not right
There's nowhere to go but up from here
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