Albums of the year can be a fickle thing. Sometimes, you think you’ve got your top five down for the year, and then a random band from some far-flung town you’ve never heard of comes and steals third place. Springfield, Missouri’s Pomfret have done just that with their debut album You’ll Be Back When Things Fall Apart. Released on November 25, 2024, and clocking in at just under half an hour, You’ll Be Back is like the quintessential Midwest emo album, with melancholic vocals and twinkly guitars infused with just a little extra math rock.
The album kicks off with an instrumental piano track. The first few notes are almost exactly the same as the piano intro on Combat’s album Stay Golden, but it quickly evolves into the church hymn equivalent of The Hotelier (apparently, Pomfret got the masters back for the album the same day Stay Golden released. They also opened for Combat this past October). The next song, “You Ganked My Spirit Walker”, follows the Midwest emo tradition of naming songs something ridiculous and unrelated to the actual song. Title aside, it would be hard to have a stronger start to an album, with screamy, melancholy vocals and shifty time signatures. The lyricism on the song also stands out, with heartfelt, anxious lines like “What if they never text back, / I am not something they lack?”
The energy and quality of the first real track continues throughout the album. “$400 “Everyone Get Out” (Waltz 2)” fills 3/4 time signature-shaped hole in my heart with beautiful, interweaving guitars and bass with lyrics full of the college-aged angst familiar to many, while the pre-chorus of “Welcome To Camp Navarro” (whose title seems to be a Fallout 2 reference) chugs along before an explosive release. “Egress! Egress! Egress!” is named for an Adventure Time episode sampled in its intro. Another standout track is “Getting Stoned, Biblically/Paul Sweatshirt”, flexing the band’s mathy, twinkly guitar prowess, with some of the most memorable lyrics on the album (“I’d happily let you waste what is left of my time”), as well as some nice gang vocals.
All 10 tracks on the album are satisfyingly angsty and nostalgic, just heavy enough to mosh to but still soft and melodic enough to play on the radio, with lyrics and vocals fit for a king and rhythms and time signatures just off enough to be fun while still accessible. Pomfret have hit the sweet spot on the spectrum of Midwest emo and math rock, and fingers crossed they’ll get the recognition and college radio airplay they deserve.