On The Might Of Princes - (Reissues)

Where You Are And Where You Want To Be (2002)


The Making Of A Conversation (1999)
thanks to Papstar for the link!

Originally released in 2002, Long Islands On the Might of Princes second album is a perfect late entry into the second wave of what could be known as Emo. Emo is a difficult term. Mostly because the people that made the music to be called emo never intended it to be and many were dismayed to called as such. The people who liked the music, never liked the term emo either, so it leaves me wondering, how did super, abrasive punk rock with screamed, shredded vocals get to be known as Emo? It mustve been someone elses doing. Regardless, to further confuse "facts", when bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Christie Front Drive and yes, Promise Ring, started to become known as Emo, it seems there was a slightly more fitting nature in that relationship, yet almost none to the previous incarnation of emo that existed from about 85 to the early 90's. I pretty much can't bring myself to think of Sunny Day Real Estate as emo, yet Mineral is nothing but Emo. I'm confusing myself already. And, of course we all know of the even more recent, "3rd Wave" of emo that has little to nothing to do with either of the first two "waves" and instead is just a bastardization of all that music stands for.... EMOTION!

These facts notwithstanding, I feel that the second grouping of bands falls closer to what should be called Emo, and OTMOP falls into this grouping. Mineral meets Cursive meets early Promise Ring, form a gang and get into a fight with first wavers Heroin, Merel and Moss Icon and VOILA! you have this messy, heaping, screaming mess of catharsis and twinkling romantics, punctuated ever so lovingly with the obligatory tear here and there. Yes, Im a poet. This kind of music should be called emo, not just because it is emotional (because then Converge could be called emo as well as Minor Threat) but because it is dripping with longing and anguish. We all know that Emo has become somewhat of a secondary term for "Wimpy" and in retrospect, all those bands (mentioned above) really fit the term as it has developed. Not that they are wimpy per-say, but they do stick fairly closely to the high-school love dilemmas of most kids these days. And we also know, that no matter how old we get, if we have a heart and arent just out for the Poon, then these same difficulties arise with almost every love interest until the day we die. So it is with that general recognition of the mushyness of love, the pain that goes along with it, and the longing for loves one past, that On The Might of Princes is not only rightly called "Emo" but also as relevant today as they couldve been in the mid 90's and as they most-likely will be in another decade.

The remasters sound alot better and there are three extra bonus tracks, released through Revelation Records.

Cry your eyes out.