Welcome, welcome faithful readers to my humble music review. Today we will be going back to our normal music review, despite the complexity of my last review (which you should check out if you haven’t already).

The album I will be reviewing today is:

You’re Gonna Miss It All – Modern Baseball

To begin this review, I think that it is important to discuss the genre “Midwestern Emo”. Midwestern Emo is a genre of emo music that began in the 1990s, and it is often defined by its whiny sound. With gloomy lyrics, whiny vocals, unnecessary talking, complex guitar riffs, and the occasional screaming, it is truly a unique genre of music, with very few bands able to master the sheer whininess required. Some bands that can be counted as “Midwestern Emo” are: American Football, The Front Bottoms, Sorority Noise, Origami Angel, Remo Drive, and the band we have today, Modern Baseball.

Modern Baseball, occasionally shortened to MoBo, is a band which rocked the emo world back in 2012 with their first release entitled “Sports”. After large success with that album, the band decided to drop out of college and pursue music as their full time job. Their iconic whiny vocals mixed with their relatable lyrics about being in highschool made it a band that a lot of people, especially teenagers, loved. The band has 2 lead singers and songwriters, often switching who writes and sings the song throughout the albums. Bren Lukens, whose lyrics are more “in the moment”, while the other singer, Jake Ewald, has lyrics that are more story driven. They have fairly similar voices and it can be difficult to distinguish who is singing sometimes, but after a while of listening you can hear that Jake Ewald has a bit more of a monotone, talking-esque way of singing, and Bren Lukens has a bit more presence in their voice.

Now their second album, “You’re Gonna Miss It All”, is the album that we will be talking about today. This album, which is arguably their most popular album, contains their (in my opinion) best songs. The album faces different lyrical themes such as heartbreak, growing up, high school, boredom, and yearning. Their song “Your Graduation” is one of, if not their most popular song. The instrumentals really show what Midwest Emo can be, and with a more modern (and occasionally cynical) approach.

This album is a very rare type of album to me, especially with the lyrics. I cannot tell if it is because the lyrics are generally more relatable, or if it is because I am in high school the lyrics are about being in high school, but I constantly find myself thinking about the lyrics while I listen to these songs. Modern Baseball has an incredible way with words and they seem to always express the emotion that they feel when writing the song perfectly. The fact that an album can have this long lasting feeling on me really shows how well this album works as an emo album. That is what emo music really is all about. Just pure emotion (go figure), and absolutely no filter. Emo doesn’t have to always be “my life is miserable”, but it’s more or less like “the world around me is miserable, and I cannot do anything about it.”

After their release of this album, they released one more entitled “Holy Ghost”, along with multiple EPs and compilation albums. In 2017 they announced that they would be going into an indefinite hiatus. Jake Ewald is now in a band called “Slaughter Beach, Dog”.

Ratings

Vocals: 6/10

As I mentioned previously, Midwestern emo is very well known for its whiny vocals. While I am a fan, I can easily see why a lot of people have trouble with bands like these.

Guitar: 9/10

Some of the guitar riffs are incredible on this album. It implements some unconventional chords which makes all the songs unique and unlike what you would hear

Bass: 7/10

Most bass lines in this genre seem to sound all the same, but Modern Baseballs’s bassist shows how a unique bassline can make a song sound so much better.

Drums: 8/10

There is a great mix between simple drum tracks and more complex drum tracks, and I really admire the ability to add a fine line between simplicity and complexity.

Lyrics: 9/10

The lyrics are really what makes this band unique from the rest of the bands in this genre. The relatable lyrics, along with the fantastic lyrics by both singers, really makes this album (or the whole band in general) one of the best in it’s genre. A lot of tearjerkers on this album.

Uniqueness: 7/10

Although the Midwestern emo genre has the problem of a lot of the songs sounding the same, Modern Baseball breaks through that barrier and shows how incredible the genre can be. Every song has a fresh and unique sound, while still holding true to the roots of Midwestern Emo

Overall Score: 7.5/10

This is a fantastic album, and as I mentioned earlier one of the best in the genre. It is a real shame that they broke up. I would have loved to see this band live.

By the way, you can request albums for me to review. If you have an album for me to review, just leave the name of it in the comments and I will write a review.