Right now, I’m listening to far too much emo. I am caught in a storm of conflicting thoughts and spiraling emotions. I don’t really know where I stand or where I’m going. I’m being deliberately obtuse, but suffice to say that my mind is a battleground. I thought that once they handed over my high school diploma I would be rid of this nonsense. After all, high school drama is for high school, right? Evidently, the mind and the heart do not pay attention to such happenings.

So, as I try to sort out my feelings and work out how the fuck I ended up in this mess, I once again turn to my record collection to help me through. And if I can’t find the answer, at least I will have a pleasant soundtrack.

There is no better soundtrack for teenage (or not-so-teenage) angst than the emo song. The power of the emo song is its ability to allow the listener to inhabit the song’s tragic world. Visitors to the emo universe get more than a photo opportunity, they get citizenship. The best music always sparks an emotion, but the best emo music is all about the emotion. As an emo singer spills his emotional innards all over the music, a listener sees their own turmoil in the trainwreck. Sometimes the feelings expressed are juvenile and the expression may be equally immature, but nobody’s ever needed Mensa membership to shed a tear or embrace a lover.

And since judging emo songs is such a subjective experience, I’m going to declare Jebediah’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” to be the perfect emo song. The power chords are fiery and the lead guitar lines are the archetypal noodling and repetition that you’d expect. Kevin Mitchell’s vocal is impassioned, but also extracting true pathos in the quieter third verse. The overall band performance is remarkable, deftly switching from the sprawling verses to the cathartic choruses.

The musical bluster of “Nothing Lasts Forever” is matched in the lyrics. Obviously, we hear that “nothing lasts forever.” However, we also hear of “talk about the past” and it is the contrast between fond memories and gloomy present that heightens the song’s tragedy. Moreover, Mitchell’s words—the forlorn musings of a disappointed lover—bear the universality of everyone’s failed romances. This is the song’s power. We have all reached out and lost. We all know that nothing lasts forever.

Such sentiments may seem worryingly pessimistic, but when you’re a mess like I am right now, it’s an easy conclusion to reach. However, there’s no need to worry—I’m sure it’s just a passing phase.

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