Sunday’s Best is broadly remembered as an emo band, but their 2000 sophomore effort Poised to Break kicks off with “The Hardest Part,” a song that lends a Paul Westerberg-esque vocal inflection to a melodic rip of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by the Police. Like many great (and many terrible) bands before and after them, the short-lived four piece was conceived at a college radio station. They were a bit too stylish and inoffensive to join the hallowed ranks of a genre that often prefers demos over polished cuts, but they marry an uncharacteristically vast range of influences across this 52-minute record.
The title is funny, harkening back to Big Star’s #1 Record. You can’t tell how seriously they take themselves, if they’re acknowledging their own potential or simply the fraught state of the music business. “When Is Pearl Harbor Day?” slyly references the album’s power pop influence: “You had that shirt on / You loved the Cars.” They’re at their strongest when combining quieter verses with sparse-and-shout choruses; “Indian Summer” feels fit for the end credits of early 2000s teen media, although its precursor “Saccharine” was the one synced on Gilmore Girls. They aren’t totally sure which lunch table to sit at, in the best way—a little too late to be part of the second-wave emo canon, and just too early for the more accessible third wave.
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