47.) The Dismemberment Plan - Change (2001)

Over the course of my lifetime, music I like has been stupidly classified into genres that either don't exist or don't make sense. From alternative to trip-hop and beyond, but none of these "labels" holds a stupidity candle to "emo." Here's a tip, stop calling music emo. You can call people emo, but the minute you start moving the term over into the realm of music, more often than not you'll be wrong.

Case in point - the Dismemberment Plan. The emo tag has long followed TDP and it's never had an more ill fit. The Dismemberment Plan are not emo and if for some reason hearing they were turned you off from exploring them, please rethink that. Thank you.

The Dismemberment Plan came and went in a flash. Well, maybe not a flash - it was a few years - but it felt fucking quick. 2001's Change was TDP's fourth official full length, but it was the follow-up to their flawless 1999 record Emergency and I. Emergency and I is a revered record - a loud, fast, electro teenage manifesto - that was going to be tough to beat. I'm not saying Change beats it either, but after the dust has settled on both records I find myself going back to Change with more frequency than I do Emergency and I.

Change wasn't simply an arbitrary title as the record is baring witness to the band actually changing. Change is a more ruminative record, and it announced the arrival of a more mature Dismemberment Plan - a band that unfortunately wouldn't last much longer than the record. I still love Emergency and I, but I was 21 when I spent a good portion of a year poring over Change and, looking back 21 was pretty much the perfect age to be when a record like this was coming out.

I can vividly remember listening to Change for the first time out and being shocked that this could be the same band who made Emergency and I. And it really took some getting used to. But once I was able to separate the fact that they had made such a different record and just accept it on its own merits - that's when it took off. Change is heavily dependent on Travis Morrisson sometimes off-the-wall, sometime too earnest, but always interesting lyrics. But, mostly this is an indie rock record of the first order. It's a top to bottom keeper and it just gets better with age. I saw TDP on the tour for the Change record and when I think about bands I'd love to see reunite they're right up. They just came and went too quickly and I really miss them.