GET UP KIDS, THE - Something To Write Home About 2xLP (Silver Nugget vinyl)

Label: Polyvinyl

On silver nugget vinyl Records have the power to return us to places long since left. The Get Up Kids seminal sophomore album Something to Write Home About, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with the release of a deluxe, remastered edition, might send listeners back to cinder block dormitories, stuffy study halls, the drivers seats of first cars, or their teenage bedrooms. For the four core members of The Get Up Kids, the album transports them to Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles Silver Lake neighborhood, where they spent six weeks in the summer of 1999 recording what would be their genre-defining outing. "I can hear that studio that we recorded in," says bassist Robert Pope. "A lot of it was the environment." Something to Write Home About captured the bands growing musicianship-their playing pivots from aggressive to sensitive from track to track, sometimes even within songs-and featured keyboard textures from James Dewees that realized the bands ambitions to push beyond stripped-down punk. "The record sounds bigger and more expensive than it actually is," says Pryor, "which I think is a testament to both our ability as a band and to Blinman's ability as a producer."Drummer Ryan Pope describes the "little magical moments" in the songwriting and arrangements, where maturity and nuance merged with the unexpected touches that sprang from the young bands instincts. "It was pretty natural," he says, "which is kind of how a lot of cool things happen-when you dont overthink it too much." For the 2024 reissue, the original album tracks were remastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound and the packaging features expanded artwork plus an albums worth of demos, including four-track acoustic recordings by Pryor. This combined effort reveals the sturdiness of Something to Write Home Abouts songs - a tracklist battle-tested in hundreds of live settings. The demos also reveal key changes to lyrics, as in opener "Holiday," and abandoned instrumental ideas; Pryor points to a "twangy" guitar line in "Valentine" jettisoned by Suptic. "Its so funny listening to it now," Suptic says. "My better taste prevailed." For the Get Up Kids, these demos also have the same transportative quality as the finished album, warping them right back to downtown Kansas City and the five-story decommissioned ROTC training facility that-for $100 a month-served as their practice space. "When I hear those particular demos," says Rob Pope, "it takes me right back to that rehearsal room." In both the early drafts and remastered tracks contained on this definitive version of Something to Write Home About, longtime fans will return to places familiar and formative, and rediscover plenty of moments as vivid as they were on first listen.