If you, too, have ever had a loved one text you “what is emo?”, boy does Park National have a solid example for you. Just queue up the chorus of “Edgerly,” one of the songs from the Boston project’s new LP You Have To Keep Searching.
“I don’t want to burn out / So I’m burning down,” sings Liam Fagan, the driving force and Berklee graduate behind Park National. Underneath his hints at destruction, a bed of guitar bears that signature Midwest-emo twinkle.
Is that an oversimplification of an entire genre on our part? Perhaps. Does it sound great? Absolutely. And while You Have To Keep Searching doesn’t stick strictly to an emo script, its ability to pose such a stellar example of the style — without sacrificing any freshness — is something worth seeking out and sharing, indeed. (That’s not even factoring in the LP’s equally-pleasant patches of alt-country and alt-rock, either).
Hear the full record below, and catch Fagan at his album release show with Tiberius, Innerlove., and Women In Peril on May 31 at Warehouse XI.