11 Best Midwest Emo Albums of the 1990s

The best Midwest emo albums of the 1990s were contained within the actual Midwest, for the most part.

Fast forward to more recent years and we’ve seen bands from just about every corner of the U.S. carrying the Midwest emo torch.

Philadelphia’s Modern Baseball helped establish a Midwest emo revival in 2012 until the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2017. Fellow Pennsylvanians Algernon Cadwallader continued their push to keep the genre alive with this year’s Trying Not to Have a Thought album.

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And while these bands don’t call the Midwest home, their music contains many of the traits often associated with one of the region’s most celebrated genres.

The twinkling guitars, earnest lyrics and a slight poppiness found in the sound known as Midwest emo were mostly established by a collection of bands around the scene in the 1990s.

The dueling vocals of Champaign, Illinois’ Braid can still be heard floating around the Midwest emo of today. The emotional depth of Kansas City’s The Get Up Kids is still holding true within the genre.

Here is a look at the best albums from one of the most influential eras of Midwest emo, the 1990s.

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