6. The Get Up Kids: Something to Write Home About
It was 2000 and my friend Mike was driving me to YoungLife. He was working on forming a new band and he was trying to explain to me what the band would sound like. Since I didn’t know most of the bands he named at the time (TwoThirtyEight, Cool Hand Luke, etc) he finally decided to play me a song that sounded like what he wanted, actually he played me two songs. Out of Reach and My Apology off Something to Write Home About.
I could not stop thinking about it shortly after that. There were these simple and catchy hooks (specifically in My Apology) but they were true ear-worms. Later that year I went out and bought the album for myself and it became the soundtrack to most of high school. It was one of those records that everyone in my cliche owned, loved and memorized.
I remember our school having “field day” every year near the end of the school year. It involved all the school punk bands performing an outdoor shows while kids played volleyball and kickball (this sounds cool and it was but this is not representative of the rest of the school year at all). I remember hanging out in the “backstage” area with the other bands and hearing a group of kids playing Out of Reach. I think it was one of those moments where you truly start to appreciate that power of music.
The five guys perfected rocking out on this album on songs like Holiday and Red Letter Day as well as the ballad on songs like Valentine and I’ll Catch You. Regardless of volume, the lyrics are powerful and cut straight to the basic elements of growing up. There are select records that speak to a generation of kids and The Get Up Kids’ sophomore album managed to be that album. It’s without a doubt one of the pop punk/emo essentials.
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