The Get Up Kids

The Get Up Kids were always lumped into a genre they were never particularly fond of. And while their debut and sophomore records fulfilled the scrappy, nasally, personal pop-punk requirements of emo pretty closely, their left-of-centre On A Wire did everything it could to change that. After releasing the equally progressive Guilt Show in 2004, the band called it quits. On the heels of a reunion tour, There Are Rules was born, and it's clear the band have abandoned trying to actively defy expectations, instead embracing their inner power-pop punks while exploring a groove, not unlike bassist Rob Pope's other fulltime band, Spoon. The content, grown-up abandon is downright ecstatic on "Automatic" and the angular, explosive "Birmingham," and the sound experimentation carries into "Pararelevant," whose guitar-plied chorus is perfectly suited to vocalist Matt Pryor throwing layers of his trademark voice at its hardest overtop. Comeback albums can be tricky; they're often most successful when they sound like a continuation rather than a recreation. There Are Rules isn't necessarily trying to recapture anything; its sole purpose to simply create is what makes it excel.