Full Collapse: The Best Pop-Punk & Emo Albums Of 2002

Monday, Taking Back Sunday will be at House of Blues with Thursday, making that evening an orgasm of 2002 nostalgia for a few hundred older indie folks here in Houston who were weaned on TBS’ Tell All Your Friends and Thursday’s Full Collapse. We were a part of the latter group, but we got into TBS later on.

By far, Tell All Your Friends was one of the most influential screamo, punk, emo, indie-pop what-have-you albums of 2002. Plenty of people still swear by that album as an ace break-up record, or just as a catchy trip down memory lane.

It came out on Victory Records right as the label dove head-first into its identity as a sort of clearing house for all things emocore. What began as a tough-guy hardcore label turned into a stable for candy-coated screamo bands in girl jeans, wielding flatirons.

But 2002 wasn’t all about TBS; plenty of other pop-punk and emo albums that hit that year that still have their devotees. Lucero released their album, Tennessee, which wasn’t a punk or emo album, but it would go on to help give rise to plenty of younger Americana acts, and expose punks to the country stylings of their older relatives.

Plus, it came when most of us were getting kicked in the mental nuts by mean punk chicks. Ryan Adams helped out too, but he was too wily to pin down.

This list, which you are more than welcome to add to, is a great snapshot in time of a scene in transition. Against Me! would soon turn into fist-in-the-air baby Springsteens, The Used would be pop-screamo stalwarts for a time, Flogging Molly would become a party band, and Thrice would basically turn prog over the next five years.

Against Me!, Reinventing Axl Rose

Simple Plan, No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls

Midtown, Living Well Is the Best Revenge

The Starting Line, Say It Like You Mean It

Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies

Taking Back Sunday, Tell All Your Friends

New Found Glory, Sticks & Stones

Face To Face, How To Ruin Everything

Hot Water Music, Caution

The Get Up Kids, On a Wire

The Used, The Used

Sum 41, Does This Look Infected?