With an amplified post-rock sound that stems from shoegaze, Finding Better Health recently dropped a pair of nostalgic post-hardcore singles
With urgency and immediacy that reminisce the roots of emocore, Why Didn’t You Appear // It Won’t Burn Forever are two singles that four-piece band Finding Better Health from Southwest Sydney have recently dropped into the music scene with melancholic lyrical depth. These tracks without hesitation, transport you back into 2009, the era of emo with their fuzzy, distorted guitar riffs and low vocal howls, churning the perfect moody atmosphere for all levels of emo lovers out there.
The band are dedicated to sourcing out their music as an outlet for emotions that are too hard to share, and exploring their gripping question of “when all you want to do is cry, isn’t it more fun to just dance?”.
Below is a list from the band’s vocalist, Harry Belcher who shared the band’s top five favourite emo records and the influence they had on their sound.
Five essential Australian Emo records
Think back to a simpler time – Blackwire Records is in full swing, your next favourite band is playing at Newtown Social Club, and every single record you hear is playing against the backdrop of the kind of high-stakes emotion and desperate yearning that is crystallised at the age of 16. It’s 3 am, the moonlight shines through your shutters, a Bandcamp page glows from your laptop and in that moment, you’ve never felt closer to the ground.
These records were the soundtrack against which we discovered music, and though the venues we heard them in have long since shuttered their windows, the minute those first notes ring out, we are 16 again, and everything is still.
Oslow – Self Titled
The definitive musical statement from the greatest emo band ever to step foot in Sydney. Kind of sitting somewhere at the intersection of Midwest Emo, Post-Punk and Hardcore, the day this album came out every other record began to collect dust. From the moment the drums kick in on Deer in the Works to the greatest outro ever put to tape in Everything Etc, the release of this album marked the first point we ever considered dropping the Black Flag rip-off thing we were doing and growing up.
Standout tracks
- Everything Etc
- Deer in the Works
- Separate
- Wide Eyed
Hannahband – Quitting Will Improve Your Health
The two piece fronted by the ever-prolific Naif Jamie (Chemical Restraint, Cherish, Sports Bra) made up for a lack of personnel with soaring baritone guitars, tentative and heartfelt lyrics, and the sweetest horns you ever heard. Seeing Hannahband play at Beatdisc Records in the mid-2010s was an experience to put it lightly. Raw, powerful yet tender, and entirely unique, Hannahband, while now long since defunct will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Standout tracks
- Burn It Down
- Card Castle
- 29er
Purplene – Self Titled
The Newcastle indie band released this powerful statement in 2004. Recorded with Steve Albini, this record has second-wave emo written all over it. Fans of Christie Front Drive, Mineral, and American Football will be kicking themselves for having overlooked this one. The odd rhythms and arpeggiated guitars on Love: Western truly live up to the Rolling Stone description; “The work of a band that’s in love with the art of crafting the perfect song”
Standout tracks
- Love: Western
- Swords Down
- The Battler
Slowly Slowly – Chamomile
Despite not receiving the attention of their 2018 breakthrough St Leonards, Slowly Slowly’s debut record contains some of the most heart-achingly beautiful songwriting an Australian act has ever recorded. Combining an earful of distortion with tender, shaking vocals, Chamomile is the perfect soundtrack to the teen angst years
Standout Tracks
- Chamomile
- PMTWGR
Endless Heights – Vicious Pleasure
Rounding out the list is the moodiest, shoegaziest, coolest release we had heard up to the point that it landed. Again, a sadly inactive Sydney group, seeing them support Touche Amore years back was an absolute lightbulb moment for us. The production on this thing is absolutely insane, combining a sort of Floral Green Title Fight-esque thing with atmospheric vocals reminiscent of bands like Nothing. Don’t sleep on this record
Standout tracks
- Come a little closer
- You Coward
- Pray I Fade
What a list of some incredible tracks that hold so much meaning to the members of Finding Better Health and the sound they’ve cultivated. Have a squiz of these records if you’re into all things shoegaze, post-hardcore, post-rock and emo and don’t forget to check out the band’s latest singles below to keep that emo train going!
