I very rarely like to admit that I discovered a band from TikTok for the order of my personal pride and ego, but a couple months ago I was scrolling aimlessly late at night and I was absolutely captivated by one of the sounds I was hearing. It was from the band Any Two Words, a self-described Midwest Emo band with Chicago origins. They dropped their debut album on August 30th, 2024 to seemingly little attention, something I personally have a bone to pick about.
I was never much for Midwest Emo before coming to college. The most experience I had with anything by the name of “emo” was the falsely declared pop punk bands of the 2010s. As always, I stumbled head first into the genre by complete accident and ended up loving it, and I wanted more. I felt like the boom of the genre was far too short-lived and then later found out that emo historically came in waves of popularity and resurgence. I absolutely predict that if this band can get big, we’ll see another wave.
When I saw the TikTok featured above, I was starstruck. It was absolutely haunting to view such a beautiful song, and by complete accident. It almost felt like those religious experiences people say they can feel with live music. For them to capture that on video and still give the same emotional value was so mesmerizing. I needed more of it, and quickly. Luckily for me, they had just so happened to drop an album about a month before.
Any Two Words’ debut album, Double Vision, shares similar themes to most of the genre of Midwest Emo, from its eclectic naming schemes to its upbeat, fast riffs. Within it’s 13 song run is a mass of casual poetry. The album comes alive to an active beat that was insanely reminiscent of early 2000s pop punk. If I had to pick out specific influences, they’d be Pretty Odd by Panic! At The Disco, Analphabetapolothology by Cap’n Jazz, and Joy, Departed by Sorority Noise. It’s something I never knew I needed, but it satisfied completely a taste that I had been craving subconsciously.
I think the best thing about this album is just how satisfying it is to listen to on an end-to-end run. It has shattering lyrics piled onto tracks of varying seriousness. The whole thing is so loud it begs to be heard. No two songs sound exactly the same, yet they all flow so perfectly into each other. They follow different paces and different jumps in time. My favorite of these transitions had to be the end of “The Rock Gets Bottomer” into “Speed Cola”.
Speaking about track, “Speed Cola” has one of the funniest samples I’ve ever heard in a Midwest Emo song, which is a hard title to hold onto. It features a video of a little German boy talking about Fortnite and Coca Cola. You might question why I would bring something so stupid up, but that’s exactly why I brought it up. Any Two Words is a college band. I couldn’t stalk enough to find out which Chicago college they go to, if it’s really in Chicago or if it’s just in a suburb, but point being they’re just young adults. That’s what really brings the authenticity to this album. Being friends and having a fun time making goofy music in a nostalgic genre.
I can say with certainty that this album summed up my first semester of college pretty well. It has been full of living for the first time, creating that future nostalgia and bonds with people that the album captures in essence so, so well. At its core, this is an album about shared experiences and the commonality of Gen Z’s college coming of age experience. It’s about joking around with your friends and falling in love and hating your assignments and hating yourself and learning to grow up. Honestly, the most I can recommend for anyone to do with this album is to sit down and give it your full attention, completely uninterrupted. No screens, no books, no fiddling around with a Rubix Cube, just twiddle your thumbs and let it do its thing. Maybe grab the friends you love the most because they’d probably like to do the same with you.
Any Two Words please come to the University of Iowa next semester. We would really appreciate it. I promise.
