I'll just get right to the punchline of my post (ha, get it? Punchline as in the band I talked about last post...ya I know lame joke) this is the album I've been waiting for in 2023. To be completely honest, no album has grabbed me yet this year, as a whole project. Sure there's been albums that I've loved songs on, but there's been nothing that's inspired me to do a write up on (except the EP Softcult did). Now The Whaler is out and I am floored!
The concept of this album (as the band describes it) is that it's a loop that plays over and over again, slowly disintegrating more and more as it goes. That loop is framed around the 9/11 event that we all remember vividly (if you were old enough to remember). Eventually 9/11 happens so often it's normalized, even as the world gets worse and worse each day. Now think of what's happening today with world events and does this seem a bit too real? I think so. That's makes The Whaler do damn effective. It gave me frikin chills once I pieced this together.
To get into the genre thing a bit here, I feel like this is a new step for the evolution of emo. I say emo because this what the band has categorized themselves into, or at least a part of their sound. There's even a nifty playlist, that the lead singer Brandon made, for 5th wave emo here! That's part of what makes this project so exciting to me, the new and unexpected. Is it folksy emo? Or maybe country screamo emo? I'm just throwing shit at the wall here, definitely not the person to make categories.
No matter, this is has been a joy of an album to experience (actually it made me feel more sadness for how relatable it is but I think you get my jist). Home Is Where are flag bearers of this new frontier of emo and I'm excited to see where they go next and how this inspires other bands!
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Highlighted song and lyrics:
Everyday Feels Like 9/11-"And God's in heaven/Where he's safe from us"
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Similar bands to check out:
GILT, Record Setter, Newgrounds Death Rugby, Hey, Ily
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Reviews and links to check out:
Consequence.net- Interview
Stereogum.com- Review
The E Word Podcast- A fun interview with Brandon about 5th wave emo and other
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