Here’s the deal. We love Fugazi and we love Minor Threat. We’ve mentioned both bands several times in print because they rule. However, some ice cream eating motherfucker in our comments section had the gall to insinuate that we’ve never heard of Rites of Spring and therefore are ‘fake emo bullshit posers’ simply because we haven’t given them much press. First off, fuck that guy. We don’t give a shit about what he thinks. Secondly, it really bothers us that he called us that.
We should probably take the high road here and just let it go, but we can’t live with the stain this slander has smeared all over us. To prove this asshole wrong and come out on top, we’ve ranked every song from Rites of Spring’s self-titled album and EP, ‘All Through A Life.’ Please don’t tell our therapist. We can’t afford another emergency session.
17. “For Want Of”
There’s likely nothing less punk than enjoying something with over three million streams on Spotify. Because this is arguably the band’s most well-known song, we’re going to err on the side of caution here and place it dead last as to not seem pedestrian. We’re not posers, so we have no way of knowing for sure, but putting a super popular track higher up in the list sure seems like something a poser would do. It would be like ranking “Waiting Room” as the best Fugazi song.
16. “Hain’s Point”
‘Hain’s Point’ is a noble effort, but sounds notably unfinished when compared to the rest of the band’s catalog. Picciotto may feel as though he’s ‘falling through a hole in his heart’ throughout the track, but we just feel like we’re falling through a half-assed song written to fill the tracklist. Maybe we’re being harsh, but the track almost sounds as if they didn’t know they were part of the motherfucking Revolution Summer Movement and that’s unforgivable.
15. “All There Is”
Rites of Spring are often credited as the originators of Emo music. Many point to the band as an example of how far the genre has strayed from its fundamental roots, and they’re usually right. This song, however, is whiny as shit. If you’re attempting to prove to your MCR-loving friend that Emo is more than just breakup songs and bad poetry, you’d be well advised to stay far away from this track.
14. “Hidden Wheel”
This probably would have been a great cut had it been sped up and recorded with the ramshackle intensity of the band’s previous work, but with the cleaned-up sound of their EP, ‘All Through a Life,’ it falls tragically flat. Remember that time you told your rowdy as fuck friend to get his shit together and he corrected his course way too hard? He’s boring as hell now. That’s essentially the deal with this song.
13. “Persistent Vision”
There are some pretty neat backward guitars at the end of this one. We can’t confirm, but we’re pretty positive the Rites Boys were the first band to ever think of incorporating reversed sounds on a track in the entire history of recorded music. That small bit of innovation aside, this song doesn’t offer much else to differentiate it from the herd and isn’t going to send anyone running to the record store for a copy anytime soon.
12. “Theme”
There’s some sort of phaser or flanger or chorus or something on Mike Fellows’ bass during this track. While we’re not sure of the exact stomp-box that was utilized, everyone knows using any effect on bass other than distortion is gross and not punk at all. If we had to guess the ‘theme’ of this track, it would be ‘we just got a bunch of goofy pedals.’ The band would have done well to leave that flashy shit behind. No one likes a showoff, Brendan.
11. “Patience”
Ugh, again with the flanger or phaser or whatever. It just doesn’t sound good, and it never will. If you’re in or starting any kind of band at all, get that shit off of your pedalboard immediately like Picciotto did after Rites of Spring broke up. Despite the aural misstep, this is a fine track. It just doesn’t seem to fit with the band’s overall image or sound and it mostly just makes us want to listen to the more successful permutations of Picciotto’s songwriting in Fugazi’s discography.
10. “All Through A Life”
As the opening track to the band’s final EP, an immediate departure is conveyed in ‘All Through A Life.’ The biggest difference is that it actually sounds kind of listenable. Ian MacKaye’s increased recording skill coupled with a more rehearsed band helped craft a more polished sound. Because we aren’t actually ‘talentless losers with zero integrity,’ as some would have you believe, we think that higher production values equate to worse-sounding music, so down in the lower half it goes.
9. “By Design”
This song is fine. Maybe due to its late position in the original tracklist of the band’s debut, it gives off a bit of an ‘okay, we get the gist’ vibe. There is nothing terrible or even remotely remarkable about this song, which means that guy who called us ‘hacks’ on Instagram last week probably fucking loves it. Sorry, this is a smack-dab-in-the-middle song at best.
8. “Other Way Around”
If you happen to have an original pressing of Rites of Spring’s self-titled LP, you might notice that this song is nowhere to be found. That’s because it was only added when the album was repressed in 1987, a full year after the band dissolved. Because this song wasn’t even readily available when the band was actually active, and the act of adding it as a bonus track for a fresh pressing feels a bit cash grabby, we must rank it lower here no matter how much that riff in the intro fucking shreds.
7. “Drink Deep”
While not the worst song in the world, and clearly a foundational composition for future Fugazi numbers, this track is nearly five minutes long and we have shit to do. Guy Picciotto claims to ‘believe in moments’ during the lengthy and mostly uneventful runtime of ‘Drink Deep.’ Our only wish here is that he would have had less faith in at least two minutes’ worth of the track’s moments while crafting it.
6. “In Silence/Words Away”
Though much of the band’s last EP proved to be a bit underwhelming after their riotous debut, this track has a bit of the familiar edge. Stuck somewhere firmly between Picciotto’s past and future stylistic choices, ‘In Silence/Words Away’ can almost be seen as a fitting swan song to his previous life as a sole frontman before careening wildly into sharing the outsized role in Fugazi. Sorry to ramble, we’ve been listening to a lot of Rites of Spring as you have probably gathered.
5. “Remainder”
If you listen closely, you can almost hear every one of your favorite punk-adjacent bands from the last twenty years being conceived throughout this track, which is one of the more melodic entries into the band’s brief catalog. The outro riff alone likely spawned an entire generation of pop-punk legends. Blame Rites of Spring or praise them depending on your feelings about the FuseTV-era of Emo and Punk, but one thing is certain, they bear nearly all of the responsibility.
4. “Nudes”
Before you start undressing and finding your most flattering selfie angle the next time you receive a text that says “send nudes,” stop and consider that the sender probably just needs help finding a link to Rites of Spring’s classic, ‘Nudes.’ This will potentially save you a ton of embarrassment down the line, and the track’s groove is as undeniable as its lyrics are existential and weird. ‘Nudes’ showcases the band at the near peak of their performative abilities, which is more than we can say for the last time the idiot that called us ‘phonies’ was in the buff.
3. “Spring”
Now that’s how you start a goddamn insanely influential and genre-birthing debut album. ‘Spring’ wastes no time kicking the absolute shit out of you. One blink-and-you’ll-miss-it snare hit and it’s ‘buckle up, fucker.’ At a neck-breaking two-minute run time, a casual listener will barely have time to get back on their feet before the final guitar notes ring out. We’re no casual listeners here, though. In fact, we’re still cleaning up all the shit we knocked over while slam-dancing to this one in the office.
2. “Deeper Than Inside”
Oh fuuuuuuck yeah. This is a ripper that is sure to have you strutting circles around your living room in no time. This one’s got angular riffs, chants a plenty, and a Picciotto voice constantly on the verge of completely going out. There aren’t many songs that more accurately sound like the term “emotive hardcore.” At least not outside of Rites of Spring’s discography, there aren’t.
1. “End on End”
I know we just recently criticized ‘Drink Deep’ for being almost five minutes long, so you’re probably wondering why we put a nearly eight-minute-long song in the top spot. Well, idiot, the reason is that ‘Drink Deep’ is a boring slog, and ‘End on End’ is batshit crazy levels of incredible. If Rites of Spring released this song, and only this song, they would probably be equally if not twice as legendary as they are now. Essentially, ‘End on End’ condenses everything great about the band’s sound into a singular track that could pass for a respectable EP in its own right. Even Dischord Records used the track’s title as the name of the compilation release of their repackaged discography. You literally can’t fight us on this, and we will not be fielding any arguments at this time. (Plus it’s the opening song in “Jump Off a Building.”)