One of my favorite things about emo is how the genre continues to grow as bands draw inspiration from one another. This has resulted in multiple waves of Emo, each with a unique sound of its own. Newer bands like Hot Mulligan, Carly Cosgrove, and Arm’s Length are happy to incorporate elements from various eras of emo. On Riley!’s new LP, “Keep Your Cool,” the band has crafted 10 songs that pull from different periods of the genre, creating a sound that feels entirely their own.

The album wastes no time in ramping up the energy. The first two tracks, “777” and “Keep Your Cool Man,” are filled with intensity, featuring distorted, driving guitars, shouty vocals, and incredibly catchy hooks that wouldn’t be out of place on an early Prince Daddy and the Hyena album. While the main hook on “777” (“When I think of you, Cut me some slack, I’m holding back”) is an earworm that you’ll find yourself singing out loud all day, it’s the build-up that makes it so memorable. Riley! uses mostly screamed vocals in the first verse to create tension, and when the chorus hits, the tension is released, resulting in an extremely, satisfying payoff. It’s these well produced moments throughout the record that kept pulling me back to the album. 

In the middle section of the LP, Riley! shifts the tone into a more emo revival sound. Take the album’s fourth track, “Kill Yr Boss.” This campy song, which fantasizes about killing your boss, incorporates tappy, twinkle guitars in a way that is reminiscent of Algernon Cadwallader. The following track, “[cries in Spanish],” seems to draw from bands like Free Throw and Hot Mulligan, with its stop-and-start rhythm guitars mixed with bouncy, catchy lead guitars. What I like about this portion of album is, while the instrumental tone changes, Riley! never strays too far from their unique, vocal delivery. 

Speaking of that vocal delivery, the mix of clean and screaming vocals on this record are fantastic.  Ryan Bluhm (vocalist) seamlessly switches between emotional, throaty screams and melodic, clean singing throughout the record extremely well.  He pushes his voice in a way that is a bit more accessible than on the bands previous work.  If I had to pick an aspect where I felt the band took their biggest step toward, vocal delivery would be on top of my list. 

“God is an Algorithm and I’m Fighting for Attention With a Million Strangers on the Internet” and “Talk It Out” close the album perfectly. “God is an Algorithm” features a first verse that feels like a callback to Motion City Soundtrack, and even includes a great outro with a trumpet.  This song is a perfect example of Riley! combining influenced from across the emo genre. 

After nine hard-hitting songs, we are left with a powerful ballad to close things out with “Talk it Out.” The album deals extensively with unhealthy relationships, whether they are with vices, work, or personal matters. A recurring theme across the record is how these unhealthy relationships can bring hardship into one’s life. The lyrics on “Talk it Out” seem to encapsulate this concept perfectly: “I need to work on myself, But, goddamn, this doesn’t help, I never put the effort you deserve, Swear to you again that I’ve changed, But it always ends the same, I never fully try to make it work.” Here, the narrator reflects on past mistakes that have impacted their relationship with another person.  It’s the type of heart wrenching ballad that has the ability to perfectly close an album.

Riley! has created a fantastic-sounding album that ticks many boxes for what makes a great record.  The emo genre is filled with fantastic new bands right now, and I’m happy to report that Riley! is among one of them.  

Rating: 8/10

Riley! – Keep Your Cool

Release Date: 4/19/24

Tracklist:

1. 777

2. Keep Your Cool, Man

3. Bad Boys Boxing Club

4. Kill Yr Boss

5. [cries in Spanish]

6. Ego Peek Mid

7. Die Mad

8. Eat Your Heart Out

9. God is an Algorithm and I’m Fighting for Attention With a Million Strangers on the Internet

10. Talk It Out

Reviewed by Bryan Williams

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