There You Are ! by The Civil War in France

Emo music typically deals with themes of introspective depression, but today’s wave of expanded emo sounds also thematically extends the genre beyond straightforward melancholy. Of course, elements of hope have always appeared alongside the despair in emo, but the chiptune-infused bedroom skramz of The Civil War in France tilts fully towards the light on There You Are !, an album that processes a troubled past but strides boldly into an uncertain future. The first half of the record discusses a series of botched romances, stories in which the lovers obsess themselves with emulating an idealized cultural expectation of love while ignoring the very real pain threatening to rupture their relationship. However, as the album pivots into its second half and adds segments of soaring, anthemic vocals to its already bright chiptune, the speaker laughs in the face of these endlessly looping romances, celebrating the will to continue even given the inevitable future heartbreak. Sure, that pain will come, but it’ll make one hell of an album then, and there’s incredible beauty in that creative metabolism.