Emery has always been one of those bands you just respect. They seem to pull off album after album with little strain. Not only are they artistic in studio, they can pull off stellar live performances while keeping you wanting more. They are just as creative with a full band as they are with the acoustic sound. This band is one the few out there that seems to be set apart and different from the other post-hardcore, pop-punk mass.

When you first see the album artwork on While Broken Hearts Prevail, you see a man sinking into the water with a woman in a boat far away. This album is far from sinking itself. Before the October 28, 2008 release, there was so much hype for this album, no one really knew what to expect. Emery released “The Smile, the Face” on their MySpace before the release date. There were overwhelming comments made on how “excited” or “bomb” the new stuff was forming to be. All three previous albums had different sounds and influences. Would While Broken Hearts Prevail be different or just the same old sound?

The whole album in itself is much lighter than their previous albums. It seems to be a bit more catchy and easy to listen to. The album starts off with the track “The Smile, the Face”. The first 30 seconds of this track dives right into a ridiculous amount of momentum. The lyrics start out with “I was never going to fall/ (I was never going to fall)/But the smile, the face has sealed my fate”. The mixture of Toby Morrell, Devin Shelton, and Josh Head's vocals pushes the song forward into gear. The song definitely has a vibe from their first album The Weak’s End. It is a much more post-hardcore sound rather than the pop-punk. “The Smile, The Face” is one of my favorite songs on this EP. The lyrics seem to talk about someone trying to ruin your life and it makes you feel awful about yourself, but you have this inner strength you know, somehow, it’s there. “The clever sounds from your mouth/they can make me feel so worthless/and you say, that I am not enough/and through my heart is breaking open/Know that I will not be broken” Emery seems to be so cleaver when writing lyrics that talk about broken hearts.

The second track, “Edge of the World”, is even more exciting. The vocals again are a key part of this song. Maybe it’s just me, but I love hearing Head’s screaming voice. It’s so passionate and interesting. The song is a bit long and the meaning is similar to everything else, but I do think it has the best lyric phrases in the whole EP. Shelton begins the chorus with, “Say you’re wrong/Let's get this over I/would like to get some sleep tonight”. Head seems to interrupt with, “Let's get this over, I'd like to get some sleep tonight” repeating after it was already stated. I personally liked it but other viewers may not appreciate the mixture.

“Say the Things (You Want)” reminds me of a few songs from The Questions. I commend Head with his cleaver keyboard playing in this song (and in “Thoughtlife), but the keyboard occasionally becomes irritating throughout the EP. This song has a basic structure of verse, chorus, verse, bridge, and chorus. My favorite hook of the song sings, “Take take take take/Back your promises and your sweet kisses/that I thought were only for me”. The drums FINALLY seem to be impacting in a simple track. There are so many dynamic points in this song. “Say the Things (You Want)” kept getting stuck in my head, even as I was mumbling the words.

The next track, “Ten Talents”, begins with keyboard and vocals. It’s a cleaver risk to start a song like such, then to come in with a crash of symbols following the rest of the instruments. “Ten Talents” is a great lyrical song. The instruments are pretty good. I can only speculate that the title has something to do with the parable in the bible where an owner gives three servants their “talents”. One servant he gives 5, one 2, and one 1. The owner comes back to see that the servant given 5 talents doubled his talents to 10. The servant given 2 talents doubles their talents to 4. The owner says to the first and second servant, “well done good and faithful servant”. The last servant with only 1 talent hid his in the ground and caused anger with the owner because he did not invest in his talent. I believe this song is related to how people think they let down God and believe that they are not worth his love anymore, when God seems to reply with, “Come home my dear because I love you. /I love you still.”

The next two songs seem to be too different to be next to each other. “Always Depends” is a nice song to listen to, but nothing really sticks out. Again, Head takes a huge risk with his keyboard playing. I enjoy listening to this song, but nothing really important sticks out. Out of the whole EP, this is the only song that seemed to irritate me by sounding a bit too cheesy or straight out of a sonic the hedgehog game. The next song, “Thoughtlife”, is another arrangement of a previously heard song. The beginning sounds like a butterfly fluttering in the background, and the previous vocals are down an octave, possibly because the song now has a different feel. The best part of the song is when the keyboard becomes more staccato during the lines, “Just know that you can't/Take back what you said/Darling, I'm not in the forgiving mood/You kept on replying/It was all in my head/Well you're just a liar/And I've got the proof/I've got the proof”. The ending of the song is just acoustic and piano. “Thoughtlife” is one of my favorite Emery songs, first heard on the re-released The Questions album as an acoustic track. This song is one of the reasons this EP is really great. The song is about breaking off a 2 year relationship. I can only imagine the agonizing pain going through those lyrics as I shed a small tear. Yes, an actual tear.

The last track is called “Do the Things (You Want)”. (If you notice, track 3 is called “Say the Things (You Want)” and the last track is “Do the Things (You Want)”.) To me, this song sounds like they are talking about the negative reaction to the I’m Only a Man album, which got reviews that weren’t so great. One phrase that tipped me off to this assumption was, “Let's write the songs that they want/I thought they'd love us but they don't/they don't.” You can almost hear the pain in their voices as one. It’s not a heavy song, but a remorse ballad from the heart. The nice poke in whoever “you” is goes, “the truth is that when/you can see past yourself/your song is the same/as everyone else...” stating that everyone else has the same song inside yourself.

All in all, as an EP, it is pretty good by itself. As Emery’s EP, coming after the letdown from I’m Only a Man, it certainly shows that Emery is getting back to where they should be. Their first album proved they can be hardcore, their second album proved they could make acoustic songs as powerful as full band songs, and their third album proved that sometimes risk taking causes a stir of emotions. They are progressing as a band and as musicians. They have a different sound in every album, defining their growth in each of their own lives. While Broken Hearts Prevail is an EP worth getting, definitely if you are an Emery fan. I am hoping that Emery sticks with this sound because, after all, you’re supposed to get better after each album.