Ever since the genre known as emo blew up, relatively few bands have actually created the style of music that "emo" used to describe. These days it refers to bands that play a less-crass version of pop-punk, but the original style of music "emo" referred to was much harsher, more aggressive and intelligent. Today's typical emo band may be emotional, but it's anything but hardcore. Hence the appeal of Long Songs for Short Term Friends -- it takes us back to what emo was all about before it was co-opted by the mall rats.

The music here is heavy without being metallic, dynamic without being predictable, and melodic without being poppy. Most of the songs chug along at a modest tempo, rife with stop-start breaks, frustrated vocals rasping over the top. You'll notice a distinct resemblance, particularly in the epic "Perception" and the fabulous "So Far So Bad", to the post-Fugazi DC scene of the early/mid-'90s. There's a healthy dose of Jawbox, Bluetip, and especially Hoover in the mix. Indeed, much of Long Songs makes me want to dig out Hoover's Route 8 and relive the glory days of that criminally short-lived outfit.

Their formula thus established, Dirt Nap rarely diverge from it. They nail the sound they're aiming for, but after the first few tracks you'll be craving a change of pace. I'd love to hear the band really explode into a furious burst of speed, or slow the music to a crawl in order to build up a little more tension. Instead, it's peaks and valleys -- and when Dirt Nap hits an emotional peak, I can't help but feel as if they're hitting a sort of artistic ceiling. A song like "Platonic Plague" trudges toward a passionate climax, but it never goes over the top to a truly heartwrenching end. That may be more a fault with the recording itself than the song, but it's a disappointment nonetheless.

Lack of variation notwithstanding, Long Songs stands apart from much of the dreck filling the emo bins. It won't go down as a classic album, but it'll make a worthy addition to your collection if you loved emo when it came out of Washington DC rather than Lawrence, Kansas.