Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring

Nothing Feels Good, the Promise Ring's second album, came out on Jade Tree on October 14, 1997, and it's the Milwaukee band taking emo's heart-on-sleeve ache and giving it a sugar rush. Davey von Bohlen sang and played guitar, Jason Gnewikow played guitar, Scott Beschta was on bass and Dan Didier on drums when they cut it at Easley McCain Recording in June 1997, with J. Robbins producing and nudging them toward a poppier, brighter sound without scrubbing off what made them an emo band.

Beschta didn't last long past the sessions: clashes with Didier saw him replaced by Tim Burton, and the band hit the road across the US that autumn, with Jimmy Eat World among the bands on later dates. The record built a cult following and is now held up as one of the genre's most influential; Andy Greenwald even borrowed its title for his book about punk rock, teenagers and emo.

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