Confession time: I like emo and I don’t care what the haters say.  The genre tends to play up some personality traits that I really identify with: being a pseudo punk, getting emotional over the silliest things, and then TURNING UP MY NOT VERY TOUGH MUSIC to get it all out of my system.  My brand is mainly 90s emo bands like The Get Up Kids and Sunny Day Real Estate, but let’s be totally upfront: I have My Chemical Romance on my iPod, too.  That’s why I stuck around work an extra half an hour yesterday to listen to Atlantic Escape, the Rockland band that used to be Winter’s Ashes.  If you aren’t familiar, Atlantic puts out super-sensitive songs about longing for love and lamenting loss.  These guys make Michael Cera look like Al Pacino.

But, man, their songs have such a great, well-produced sound. Beyond the sonic quality and the first-rate mixing, I like that the band shows a lot of musical restraint in their compositions.  Like any emo band, though, they aren’t afraid to over-indulge in sob-story emotion.  This is break-up music, best for feeding (or recalling) teen heart ache.  But beyond that, the rhythms are carefully crafted, with lots of staccato breaks, and bits of silence sprinkled in to keep you paying attention (you get hooked back in after the quiet).  Winter’s Ashes was alright, if I remember correctly (I think I only heard them once), but the old band just didn’t have the polished finished product that you get from Altantic Escape.  Or the same degree of catchiness.  Did they fly out to LA for a session with Rick Rubin or something?

Lots more to come on these guys.  In the meantime, see them live- they’re playing  the Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library on October 3 at 6 p.m.

(Photos courtesy of Atlantic Escape via MySpace)