The New Amsterdams At The Foot Of My Rival by: Tom Bradbury Mon:22-Oct-07 Label: Curb Appeal Year: 2007 WB rating 70 out of 100

Terrible fashion, music and lyrics have led anybody with sense to distance themselves from the genre. But emo today isn’t what it was in the 90s; in fact the two are scarcely comparable. Emo didn’t used to be as narrow and defined as it has now become. That’s why it would be a surprise to many that alt-country/indie group The New Amsterdams should have any connection to the now thoroughly corporate genre, but their frontman Matt Pryor was once chief songwriter and lead vocalist for the influential late ‘90s emo outfit The Get Up Kids.

Emo music of the ‘90s was somehow more open and compatible with the greater indie world. Bands like The Get Up Kids possessed a certain economy of sound, one that has stayed with Pryor into his journey with the New Amsterdams. In this way, the spectre of ‘90s indie/emo music hangs heavily over At The Foot Of My Rival. But Pryor has now traded in distortion for twang, while maintaining his trademark introspectiveness, and in this, The New Amsterdams sixth album, he is now firmly established in the alt-country tradition. The signs of this shift can be seen as early as The Get Up Kids 1997 track, ‘A Newfound Interest in Massachusetts’. Really, it should not be that surprising, as country is the original and most pure form of American emo music – songs of heartbreak and pain being practically as old as the American South itself. When you think about that it that way, it’s a pretty logical and understandable progression (or perhaps regression). 

Pryor still wears his heart on his sleeve, with entirely transparent lyrics. Songs like ‘A Story Like a Scar’ reveal very real pain resulting from fractured relationships, but it is now due to more adult circumstances. As Pryor sings on ‘Without a Sound’, “Now there’s a house to sell”. Critically, there was a fairly major backlash in the indie world  against this unadulterated angst, which was even more pure in The Get Up Kids – it was as if there was some inner teenage rebellion that the critics were embarrassed by and wished to expel. Like it or not though, bands like The Get Up Kids were massively influential on the ‘90s kids who dominate the indie world today and ‘Without A Sound’ is one of the songs that is most reminiscent of Pryor’s former band; it is also one of the strongest. Simple, uncluttered and direct, sounding like a subdued Band Of Horses.

Against this grain, ‘Fountain Of Youth’ is another of the better cuts and one of few on the album to exhibit some sense of joy, with its backing vocal whoops and vintage Stones riffs. It wouldn’t hurt Pryor to indulge in his happy side a bit more. At 14 tracks, there is a fair degree of disposability to At The Foot Of My Rival, and eventually the consistency in the band’s sound begins to wear thin – the album could have benefited greatly from the culling of a few tracks. It’s not so much that some the songs are horrible, more that they fail to make any major impression leading to a fair degree of monotony. Also, the stripped down production of this album is not always effective or appropriate, especially when some of the songs are so similar to each other.

At The Foot Of My Rival maintains the long ‘90s emo/punk tradition of producing solid but not amazing albums. While this album may not bear much similarity in style to the groups of Pryor’s musical roots, their spirit definitely pervades the songs.