Something to Write Home About

1	Holiday 3:29
2	Action and Action 4:05
3	Valentine 4:19
4	Red Letter Day 2:56
5	Out of Reach 3:46
6	Ten Minutes 3:12
7	The Company Dime 4:06
8	My Apology 3:24
9	I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel... 3:08
10	Long Goodnight 4:49
11	Close to Home 3:50
12	I'll Catch You 4:20

Barnes & Noble

Although often called an emo-core band, the Get Up Kids don't fit neatly under the heading; their upbeat songs hew more to the Bay Area punk-pop scene. With soaring guitar parts delivered at an often breakneck clip and Matthew Pryor's snotty vocals, the band is poised somewhere between Jawbreaker and Blink-182. But the Kids easily earn admittance into the emo-core boys club with their tenderhearted lyrics. On SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT, the Kansas City, Missouri band's second long-player, Pryor writes musical postcards to an absent girlfriend separated by some (emotional or geographic) distance "worlds away." "You think my life would stop when you're away/Maybe I could see you on holidays, worlds away," he sings on the opening track, "Holiday." During the ballad "Valentine," he croons, "Will you be my valentine if I'm a world away?" The sentiments would seem simplistic and even mawkish if not for the band's rosy-cheeked guilelessness and their ability to touch a nerve in anyone who's felt the flush of young, dumb love. And the amazing energy the Get Up Kids bring to the project makes the band all the more endearing. Admittedly, the songs start to sound the same by about track seven (out of 12), and there are other bands in this genre (the Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World) who are a more inventive and whose songs are catchier than the Kids'. But, for a second album, SOMETHING is a valiant effort and a worthwhile listen for any serious emo fan. Jenny Eliscu

All Music Guide

Imagine if the kids that got made fun of on the back of the bus ended up being the coolest ones in the school. Not through any kind of terrorist revenge fantasy or post-apocalyptic last-people-alive-on-Earth scenario, but what if they were actually the most interesting, most sincere, most talented kids around? That is exactly the impression given by the Get up Kids on their 1999 album Something to Write Home About. That although they are struggling with stumbling relationships and the pervasive frustrations of being young men in their generation, they still are able to process the complexities of their daily lives through music. This is a heavy statement concerning a power pop band, but these guys are doing it right.

Rocketing out of the gates with a blast of punk bravado and true emo energy, guitarists Matthew Pryor and Jim Suptic sing as if the more forcefully they belt it out, the sooner their dilemmas will be solved. Incorporating Fender Rhoades electric piano and Moog synthesizers (played sparingly by James Dewees) adds an element that Weezer introduced to smart post-punk bands, allowing the sound to be cool and geeky at the same time. The cross-town traffic ballad "Ten Minutes" is a stuttering ode where the singer's girlfriend lives, hoping for understanding but expecting an argument. The sincere combination of excitement and concern in Suptic's voice gives the listener a genuine feeling for the situation. Shifts in tempo and punchy guitar riffs separate the Get up Kids from their emo contemporaries who often seem too comfortable with their guitar-bass-drums formula. The pleading acoustic "Out of Reach" showcases the bright harmonies and raw emotion of the band as it builds into a piano-driven, swaying lost love torch song, quite unusual for the genre. "I'm down for whatever," Pryor sings on "Action & Action," and it is that kind of apathetic optimism that makes Something to Write Home About worthy of the critical praise and dedicated fanbase it has earned. Zac Johnson