Artist Blue October

In the realm of “silent majority rock”—that subset of guitar-based pop that forces music journalists to swallow the cold, hard truth that just because they ignore a band doesn’t mean the rest of the world will follow suit—Blue October is the eyeliner-streaked king. The band has steadily built its private emo-pire since emerging from the wilds of Houston in the mid-’90s, inducting an unprecedented number of followers via the violin-swirled melodrama of 2009’s Steve Lillywhite-produced Approaching Normal. Sessions for 2011’s Any Man In America were helmed by another U2 vet, Tim Palmer, and the anthemic lift of that decidedly non-silent-majority-favored act imbues lead single “The Chills.”

Updated 04/03/2012