- It's not always easy being a fully grown adult who appreciates emo. And not just because the term is frequently hijacked to describe seemingly any form of music. It's more that, as you develop into adulthood and a sense of proportion, it becomes harder to give your time to the deathly serious confessions of anguish from tortured songwriters; almost impossible to sit through the adolescent fury of dudes with broken hearts.
So I'll forgive you any hesitations you might have approaching For Ages, the second album from New Zealand's emo twopiece Carb On Carb. Fortunately though; while For Ages has all the sonic emo trademarks of soaring vocals, a guitar tone warm as a woolen blanket, mathy lead bits, ever changing dynamics and crash cymbals that wash over you like the ocean; there are a few things that make this distinctive from the average emo release.
For one, it's refreshing having the female voice of Nicole Gaffney take the lead considering emo can sometimes feel like a brokenhearted boys' support group. Secondly, there are no songs about breakups. Relationships end folks, and yet the world keeps turning.
The lyrics of For Ages often address the theme of growing up. "Getting older, getting wise / Is being content as your body slowly dies" as the lyrics of Overcompensate go. Songs are about trying to find your physical and spiritual place in the world, connecting to the past through family history and your own personal backstory, trying to forge your own way in the face of societal and familial pressures, taking time out to relax, and resisting the insistent threat of the nine to five lifestyle.
First world problems then you could say, but we are living in the first world after all. Like the original emo bands who reached behind hardcore punk's macho posture to find the fleshy heart underneath, Carb On Carb have vocalised some of the themes many of us think about as we get older but don't necessarily like to say; and the music is beautiful. For Ages is as good an emo release as you will hear anywhere this year.
- Andy Paine.