Algernon Cadwallader’s return with Trying Not to Have a Thought (released Sept 12, 2025, via Saddle Creek) is as much a revival as it is a reckoning. After a 14-year break since Parrot Flies (2011), they’ve reassembled the original lineup—Peter Helmis (vocals/bass), Joe Reinhart (guitar), Colin Mahony (guitar), and Nick Tazza (drums)—for an album that sounds familiar enough for longtime fans, yet deeply evolved.
The album delivers in spades: guitars dart back and forth in a classic Midwest emo swirl, tight finger-tapping riffs combined with dynamic percussion and textures that range from soft, shimmering to hurled-out catharsis. Tracks like “Hawk” hit with emotional weight, while moments like “Million Dollars” and “Attn MOVE” address real world pressing issues (homelessness, city violence, historical trauma) with sincerity not always common in emo’s past iterations. Helmis balances introspective grief (“Hawk”) with righteous anger and political awareness, giving the album thematic breadth beyond longing and fade-outs.
Sonically, this is Algernon being louder, fuller, more polished—but without losing the ragged edges that made earlier work compelling. Production is warm, vibrant, and they harness clarity without sterilizing the chaos. Reinhart’s mixing makes the interplay between guitars sparkle; Tazza’s drums drive with precision. The pacing is well measured: songs build, retreat, and punch back in, never over-indulgent.
My favorite moments are where the band leans into contrast: soft passages that feel intimate (“What’s Mine”, “Hawk”) followed by blasts of strings, dissonance, intensity. Trying Not to Have a Thought doesn’t just lean on nostalgia; it builds on the roots of emo with fresh eyes, more conscious lyrics, and a sense of what it means to come back when things have changed.