Zippy guitar riffs and emo lyrical sensibilities are the highlights of “Without You” by Gabe Woodrow. That is, however, just how it starts. The song quickly progresses until you are soaring. I admit, it’s definitely a weird place for an emo song to end up, but perhaps that is just where what is ostensively a break-up song needs to take you sometimes. The lyrics that best illustrate this are “Grand theft autumn and a half rack deep skip a couple of chapters find me under the cork tree”. References to Fall Out Boy will never cease to tickle my brain. Kudos there, but what is brilliant about this line to me is that it really sells the idea that you are getting over this girl while pounding beers and listening to the FOB discography. I can almost visualize it. The overall message the song sends is that you are not wallowing in your misery. You are bummed out, but you are moving on. Ultimately, I believe what Gabe invokes with this song is a new version of emo where emotions are shared AFTER working through them in therapy. Rather than working through them live while performing at the local house show like we used to do back in the early 2000s. Is it a better version of emo? That is hard to say, but I would venture a guess that it is probably a healthier version of emo.
Written by David Robison
