Emo Diaries: The Anniversary - Your Majesty

This album came out at the very tail end of the underground emo phenomenon in January 2002 and exhibited almost all of the qualities of the transitional emo-indie album. The very first thing you'd notice once you got your hands on the CD is that it was packaged in a paper case, immediately recalling the packaging of other completely legit albums like Something to Write Home About or Four Cornered Night. Once you opened it, you knew that the Anniversary had higher aspirations than your local bands who would never release a CD in anything other than a broken jewel case or maybe those flimsy paper/plastic envelopes that really fledgling bands give out. It was also on Vagrant, which still kind of meant something at the time.

The music also belied a deep desire to be an indie rock band. The prior Anniversary album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown was a confection-laden treat with synthesizer bursting from every crevice in the synth-emo style of Ozma or the Rentals (but less straight-up rock than Ozma and less Weezer-cred than the Rentals). Your Majesty eliminated the exploitatively catchy and blip-bloop-y synths for "majestic" organ tones and the tempo of ballads or dirges. Along with these changes, the lyrics also moved up in class. The Anniversary wanted a more literary tone than your average emo band, but ended up with generic poetry-ish lyrics that never really resonated with me, though I did think that the song Devil on Your Side was kinda badass... yeaaa.

I once saw the Anniversary open for Get Up Kids and then once headlining. The differences between those shows parallel the differences between the albums. The first time they were a goofy, hook-y emo band with a really cute keyboard player. The next time I saw them, the lead singer was wearing a fighter jet pilot's helmet like he was Maverick or something. That about sums it up to me.

Of course, in retrospect, The Anniversary is just one of several emo bands from Kansas to have more than a passing dalliance with indie. It could contribute this to Saddle Creek's Nebraskan influence, and on some level I kind of believe it to be true even though I have absolutely no basis for doing so. A hybrid band like the Anniversary is required to show restraint and taste to build up credibility as an indie band, but lack of restraint is pretty much the foundation of all emo. Yet, I still really enjoy the Anniversary even though I never became an enthusiastic fan at the time. Yet, their songs are still solid at their base and definitely worth listening to anytime I want to think back to early 2002.


Designing a Nervous Breakdown era



Your Majesty era