With Every Idle Hour

With Every Idle Hour were yet another emo band out of Long Island's incredible scene. There's little point in delving into their history—just read this. Their sound follows the course of a lot of emo bands in the late 90s who stuck together through the millennium, gradually discarding the emo\post-hardcore elements in favor of poppier tendencies. For that reason, their first LP is what I consider to be their best work, though I doubt they feel the same way. In an interview, the lead vocalist described Finally as, "…that transitional period between like…ripping off Quicksand and ripping off Sunny Day Real Estate." This is not an entirely accurate dismissal: They were mostly ripping off Jimmy Eat World.

The band was around in 1999, contributing a track to a compilation, and then released Finally in 2000. As I said, it may be taking from Quicksand and Sunny Day Real Estate (you can hear both in there), but it primarily sounds like a tribute to Static Prevails. The band would release a follow up, The Distance Between, in 2003. The second album sands off most of the midwest emo and post-hardcore elements in favor of emo pop. Before disbanding, they recorded the rough mixes for an unreleased third album that was put up on Bandcamp in 2018; previously, it was only available on the To Live and Die on LI blog.

Finally

With Every Idle Hour on Bandcamp