It’s no secret that I’ve been known to miss important bands. For example, I missed Louisville emo legends Elliott entirely until I bought a copy of Song in the Air after coming across it in a record store in St. Pete FL in early 2020. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that most people consider that record to be a disappointment.
The real show, so I was told, was False Cathedrals. So when that record got a repress, I did the same thing I did with Song in the Air: I bought it without listening to it.
And while personally my opinion on its follow up hasn’t been changed, it’s easy to see why this album gets the love it does.
Almost immediately, False Cathedrals asserts itself as an emo classic. After a brief introduction track, “Calm Americans” opens as an emotional piano ballad before being joined by an urgent drum part and bouncing bass line, building up to a climactic chorus that sits easily alongside some of Jimmy Eat World’s most anthemic tracks (it doesn’t hurt that Chris Higdon’s voice sounds similar to Jim Adkins. The energetic “Drive On To Me” is just begging for a singalong. “Lipstick Stigmata” rides a muscular psych-rock inspired riff with a lurching bass line and noisy lead guitar. “Carving Oswego” might showcase Elliott at their rawest, complete with some chunky low guitars. “Lie Close” is positively blistering with a punishing rhythm section and angular guitars.
Despite a bit more immediacy in the songwriting though, there’s plenty of the sophisticated atmospherics that drew me to Song in the Air in the first place. “Blessed By Your Own Ghost” could easily fit on that tracklist. “Shallow Like Your Breath” is patient and delicate, modulated percussion skittering beneath a lush soundscape of twinkling pianos and effect-heavy guitar until a climax that’s just as heavy emotionally as it is sonically.
But of course, False Cathedrals is best when the atmospheric composition and direct songwriting work in concert, like in “Dying Midwestern” with its whispy verses divided by loud, straightforward choruses or closing track “Speed of Film” that burns slowly to a stunning conclusion.
Who’s to say how I missed this record. This is exactly the type of thing I would have gotten into when Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, and Taking Back Sunday were dominating playtime in my Discman. It has all the emotional catharsis of those bands but with a far more sophisticated sense of atmosphere and composition. It might not dethrone Song in the Air in my personal ranking, but it’s most certainly the stronger record, so we’ll see how long that opinion lasts.