Discog Diaries #3 - Set It Off
Let's get emo up in here, shall we?
Y’know, I should really get a logo made for this series at this point. In any case, welcome back to Discog Diaries, one man’s quest to let everyone know how bad his taste is! Or how good his taste is, depending on your perspective, but I don’t think people will be willing to call my taste good this time around, as I dive into the discography of Florida pop punk band Set It Off. And the reason for that is… I’m a big Set It Off fanboy. Discovered them in middle school, was obsessed with them for years, and recently became obsessed with them again thanks to their newest album’s release cycle. For those of you who’ve read my last entry in this diary, where I covered Poison the Well, I mentioned the need for more divisive discogs… and oh boy, Set It Off have one, thanks to some bad growing pains, and a really weird and bad left turn by the time of their third full-length album, but we’ll save the specifics for the run itself. Speaking of which, let’s dive in!
Set It Off’s Discography:
Baby, You Don’t Tripajahadra (EP, 2008)
Calm Before the Storm (EP, 2009)
Hush Hush (Single, 2010)
Together Forever (Single, 2010)
Horrible Kids (EP, 2011)
Cinematics (2012)
Duality (2014)
Upside Down (2016)
Midnight (2019)
Elsewhere (2022)
Win Win (Single, 2023)
Set It Off (2025)
We’ll go through each release in chronological order, rate them, and then rank them at the end! So, let’s get going… and we start at rock bottom this time around.
Baby, You Don’t Tripajahadra (EP, 2008)
So, a consistent theme with the last two bands we’ve covered in this series is that their debut EPs were rough proving grounds for what would come, but were still rather decent. Not so with Set It Off’s first release. Look, I love Set It Off, and I will defend a lot of their comparatively weaker releases… but there’s no defending this. I walked into this discog run so sure of what would be my least favorite release, and was immediately proven wrong. Say what you will about Upside Down (and I have a lot to say about that album), but at least it had decent production and vocal performances, and at least the songs sounded legitimately varied. Baby, You Don’t Tripajahadra, on the other hand, has none of that. The production is atrocious, Cody’s voice is so clearly untrained, and the band at large sounds less like Set It Off and more like a band trying to be “we have Fall Out Boy at home”. I mean, I get it, this was in the golden age of FOB, but listening to this EP just gives me the impression that Set It Off needed far more time to mature and come into their own. I think the best thing I can say about Tripajahadra is that “Shh, It’s a Secret” is somewhat enjoyable despite all of the factors on this EP working against it, but I can say with confidence that I will likely never return to this EP.
4/10
Favorite Song: “Shh, It’s a Secret”
Calm Before the Storm (EP, 2009)
Oh thank god, the sound quality is way better, and so are Cody’s vocals. Calm Before the Storm is a marked improvement over Tripajahadra, even though it still is clearly a band in their infancy, trying to discover what works best for them. There’s a notable amount of passion here which I can’t quite ignore, but it still sounds a little too diet Fall Out Boy-ish for my tastes, and Cody’s vocals still have a measure of roughness to them (“143”’s low vocals especially made me raise an eyebrow). The songs also tend to sound a little too same-y, though I’d take same-y better produced songs over the previous EP. Really I don’t have too much to say about this EP, other than the fact that the rerelease of “Text Me, Kelly” is miles better than its Tripajahadra incarnation, and that “Pages and Paragraphs” is a legitimately good standout track. It’s a transitory EP, plain and simple.
6/10
Favorite Song: “Pages and Paragraphs”
Hush Hush (Single, 2010)
Who would’ve thought that Set It Off started to hit their stride on a damn standalone single of all things? “Hush Hush” is a beautiful taste of things to come from the band, as Set It Off begin to embrace the orchestral, theatrical side that would come to define their best works. Once more, Cody’s vocals are a little shaky, but it’s clear that he’s coming into his own, something that would only get stronger and stronger with each following release. The guitars here blend perfectly into the orchestral elements, and it’s kind of crazy how much better produced this single sounds, when you consider that this was still a self-released single from the band. It’s kind of a shame that this was relegated to standalone status, because it could’ve fit pretty damn well on Horrible Kids.
7/10
Together Forever (Single, 2010)
In much the same fashion as “Hush Hush”, “Together Forever” shows Set It Off settling more comfortably into their niche. Cody sounds even better he than he already did on the previous single, and the riffs sound just a little more energetic and entertaining. It’s a catchy single that unfortunately falls a little short of “Hush Hush” thanks to its more saccharine lyrics and tone in general, a far cry from the best of Set It Off’s cynical snark that forms the bedrock of some of their best releases. But after the middling iffiness of the first two EPs, it’s so nice to see SIO start to find solid ground. Again, not much to say here because a lot of my thoughts on “Hush Hush” applies here.
6.5/10
Horrible Kids (EP, 2011)
If I had to pick one project that truly marked the point that Set It Off grew into their own, it would almost certainly be Horrible Kids. Everything that they began on “Hush Hush” and perfected on the following album (spoilers) was cemented on this EP. The theatrical sense of grandeur that was already present on “Hush Hush” is just escalated here, combined with riffs that have a far greater sense of what I can only describe as urgency behind them. The first few tracks are maybe a little too Panic! At The Disco-ish for their own good, but once you hit the three-track streak of “@reply”, “Horrible Kids”, and “I Think It’s Arrogance”, you realize exactly what this band was cooking with. It’s not perfect, Cody’s vocals are still ever-so-slightly shaky, and there are some screams in the background that can sound… not the best, if I’m being honest, and the band’s attempt at a ballad-y number with “Missing You” falls short, but it’s so far above the first two EPs that I find myself not caring as much as I probably should. Still, the best is very much yet to come.
7/10
Favorite Song: “Horrible Kids”
Cinematics (2012/2013 [expanded edition])
Set It Off’s debut album is also their best, and it’s honestly not even close. Everything that Horrible Kids had started building up towards hit its absolute peak on Cinematics, and it’s honestly kind of incredible to see the leaps and bounds in improvement in the one year between the projects. Right off the jump, we get a gorgeous string-led intro that leads right into the rollicking opener “Nightmare”, and it’s immediately clear that Set It Off have basically perfected everything they started in Horrible Kids. Cody’s voice is the strongest it’s ever been, and it’s used to its damn near fullest potential here. High notes that once sounded strained are hit with more confidence, and he’s able to inject enough emotion in his voice to sell some of the ballads placed throughout the album, especially the heartstring-tugging “Dad’s Song”. Honestly, it would be a bit easier to list the songs that aren’t still well-regarded among the fans. Whether it be the insomniac anthem “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”, the bitter “Plastic Promises” or “I’d Rather Drown”, or the emotional “Dream Catcher” and “The Grand Finale”, there’s a little bit of everything here. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the extra tracks included on the Expanded Edition. “Partners in Crime” is still a live staple to this day, for good reason, and “Kill the Lights” is often overshadowed, but holds its own in every right. It’s a shame that Set It Off didn’t stay on this route going forward. What we got instead was the beginnings of a hard pivot in terms of style.
9/10
Favorite Song: “I’d Rather Drown”
Duality (2014)
Oh boy, this is where things get a little messy. The general consensus on Duality is that it’s a heavy step down from Cinematics, as Set It Off began to embrace more of their pop side. And, yeah, I can see that for sure. Make no mistake, the poppier cuts on here are easily the weak links in the chain (aside from the acoustic-driven “Bleak December” and the gospel-esque chants of “Why Worry”). As we’ll soon discover, it took Set It Off several albums to truly get pop down, and even then, they abandoned that sound almost as soon as they got it right. And you can feel those growing pains here on cuts like “Bad Guy”. But here’s the thing… I can’t hate the album that much despite that. One of those reasons is nostalgia, this album was an obsession of mine upon first discovery thanks to a very good friend of mine. The other? The tracks here that lean more into Set It Off’s punk sound are among some of their absolute best. Obviously, everyone is going to point towards “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”, and, yeah, the jazzy jauntiness of that track is catchy enough to get stuck in your head for weeks on end. But, for my money, I much prefer the opening salvo of “The Haunting” (which goes absurdly hard live), and “N.M.E.”. Even some of the poppier songs here have this cheesy charm to them (“Forever Stuck in Our Youth” especially) that makes me grin like an idiot whenever I listen to them. I can’t quite describe it, but all I can say is that I could never really hate this album, even as I acknowledge its flaws.
7.5/10
Favorite Song: “The Haunting”
Upside Down (2016)
From a flawed album that I have a lot of nostalgia for and love, we arrive at a flawed album that I have a lot of nostalgia for… and really can’t defend, despite my best attempts to do so. Context, Upside Down released on the day my grandfather passed away, and, to call on an old cliche, it got me through a very difficult time. I still remember voraciously devouring the clips released on Instagram of each song in the lead-up, and listening to the whole thing on the plane ride up for the funeral. With the album being as sunny and poppy as it was, it was a bit of a bright light in a very dark time. That being said, coming back to this album years later was rough. As I alluded to, this was where Set It Off ditched any notion of being punk, embracing pop rock wholeheartedly. In a couple cases, those being opening tracks “Something New” and “Uncontainable”, as well as the excellent penultimate track “Crutch”, it works pretty well for them. Unfortunately, that only comprises a small portion of the album. Most of Upside Down pinballs back and forth between the cliche (“Diamond Girl”), the cheesy, and the outright saccharine. The title track embodies that last quality to a sickening degree, complete with some of Cody’s worst lyrics to date. The only unambiguous highlight here is “Hypnotized”, which seems to be the only track that Set It Off ever want to acknowledge from this album. Little wonder too, when it’s the only song on this album that carries any of Set It Off’s trademark snark and venom. A suitably bombastic production can’t save this album from being the absolute worst of Set It Off’s full-lengths, not when it’s so far divorced from what made them succeed in the first place.
5/10
Favorite Song: “Hypnotized”
Midnight (2019/2021 [deluxe edition])
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: this album hoodwinked us something fierce at first. Lead single “Killer in the Mirror” seemed to imply that the Set It Off we knew was back in full force, still very much emo pop, but far closer to Duality than Upside Down. Even follow-up single “Lonely Dance” felt more in line with Set It Off’s old DNA, despite being a far more upbeat track. Then the full album released, and… guys, I’m sorry, but I’ve never gotten the praise for this album. It’s leagues better than the saccharine energy that often invaded Upside Down, but it’s still Set It Off going full pop. The hooks are here, and some of the more gushy tracks work better, especially “For You Forever”, which is my guilty pleasure song here, but then you get the weird intro to “Dancing With the Devil” or the blandness of “Go to Bed Angry”. The sad fact is that Set It Off pivoting to a more pop direction just didn’t work for them, at all. There’s hooks here, and the emphasis on a more melancholic atmosphere works well given SIO’s history, but it’s not enough to keep this album at the bottom half of SIO’s full-length albums for me. The one thing I will give this album is that the three deluxe edition tracks, “One Single Second”, “So Predictable”, and “Catch Me If You Can” are far better than a lot of the mid-to-latter half of the main album… shame they’re relegated to the deluxe edition.
6/10
Favorite Song: “Lonely Dance”
Elsewhere (2022)
Out of all of Set It Off’s “pop era” albums, it’s Elsewhere that stands above the pack as the best thing to come out of this period. Setting aside that god-awful album cover, Elsewhere re-emphasizes the rock-ier elements of SIO’s sound. They’re not pop-punk again, but they’re certainly not as stereotypically radio-friendly as they were before. Need proof? Look at second single “Projector” which sees Cody Carson returning to his snark-tastic ways in one of the most entertaining songs Set It Off had released in over a half-decade. In general, the album is the “let’s have a good time” sound and vibe of Upside Down, but injected with the bitterness and snark that made Set It Off’s first two LPs so entertaining to sing along with. The album isn’t also frontloaded, just a little inconsistent. “Skeleton” and “Projector” are great opening tracks, things take a lull around “Why Do I” (which only really got good once Set It Off embraced the memes and made a version with Hatsune Miku… seriously), and then “Who’s In Control” comes in to bring things back, and then things slow down again quality-wise, and then here comes “The Magic 8” to just utterly shock you with how good it is. I still like “Projector” a little more because of nostalgia reasons, but this album as a whole is a pretty decent perfection of the pop sound. Still, I feel like longtime fans were waiting to see what would happen if Set It Off went “heavy” once more…
7.5/10
Favorite Song: “Projector”
Win Win (Single, 2023)
Shortly after the release of Elsewhere, Set It Off decided to split with parent label Fearless Records, going independent. And almost immediately, they went on a campaign to assure fans that they hadn’t forgotten how to rock the hell out. In fact, they were ready to give the fans exactly what they wanted. Through a social media push, they began to reassert themselves in strong fashion, seeming honor-bound to return to their basics, with a nice dash of heaviness to make up for all of the pop of the past few years. Bafflingly, the second single of this new era, “Win Win”, featuring Scene Queen, who SIO had collabed with prior on her single “Barbie and Ken”. As a single, this is one hell of a jam, that probably should have made it onto their self-titled album. Lord knows the tone fits in perfectly with the rest of the album. But, for whatever reason, it stayed as a standalone single. Thankfully, it’s still a wonderful jam, with Cody and Scene Queen trading vocals back and forth at a rapid-fire pace. It’s a Set It Off track, and most of what I have to say about it applies to a lot of what I’ll talk about in the next album, so I’ll leave it at this: I consider this the unofficial second single of Set It Off, because it damn sure holds up just as well as those songs. Great stuff all around.
8.5/10
Set It Off (2025)
As mentioned, Set It Off seemed damn-near honor-bound to realign themselves with what made them popular in the first place. “Win Win” was the second of these singles, but before “Win Win”, Set It Off dropped “Punching Bag”, which would end up becoming the lead single of their self-titled album. If I had to put a word to it, I would easily call this single course correction, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. See, at the time, Set It Off was experiencing a bit of a resurgence, as nostalgia for their older material began surfacing, something that even the trio themselves would acknowledge. As such, “Punching Bag”’s release was heavily marketed on that nostalgia, a heavier sequel to every pissed-off SIO song that the fans adored. And as singles began to slowly trickle out, it became clear that Set It Off were going back to basics, and evolving from there. Which leads us to the self-titled album, which takes a little bit of each piece of Set It Off’s history, and gives it all a slightly metalcore-esque edge. Aside from the obvious nostalgia song, a re-recording of “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”, Set It Off dips into various pieces of the band’s history. Orchestral elements are laced all throughout “Punching Bag”, “What’s In It For Me?”, and “Evil People”, to name a couple songs. “Switch” feels like it was lifted straight from Elsewhere, just with a grimier coat of paint, and dark horse single “Creating Monsters” brings back the jazz that was present in songs past such as “Plastic Promises”. The best example of this is “Vicious Cycle”, which is just a bona-fide sequel to “Swan Song”, and easily takes its place as my favorite song on the album. It’s not all perfect, “Pathological” and “Rotten” are great songs, but feel a little too Octane-core for their own good at times, but it’s kind of hard for me to hate this album, especially with the giddy fanboy feeling I get hearing Carson unleash legitimate metal screams. I’m biased as shit, but this is a fantastic sign for albums to come.
8.5/10
Favorite Song: “Vicious Cycles”
Final Thoughts:
When I did discog runs for ERRA and Poison the Well, I was struck by how magnificently consistent those two bands were; even at their lowest points, they never dipped below a 6 or 6.5. Not so with Set It Off at all. Their highs are magnificently high, but their lows are… just kinda painful. It sucks too, this was a band that formed a core part of my childhood thanks to their theatrical elements, yet I remember just skipping over most of Midnight in its entirety, and legitimately not even realizing Elsewhere had existed until about a few months after it had released. When you look at it, Set It Off’s reign of good pop punk albums was actually rather short, only lasting one EP and one and a half albums, thanks to Duality objectively being such a mixed bag. But dammit, I can’t bring myself to hate what they did and what they contributed to the pop punk scene. Despite their up-and-down discography, I’m still a diehard SIO fan, especially now that they seem to be back on track with their core sound. Until then, I’ll keep replaying them, and screaming out my car window that it was never a phase.
Discography ranking (excluding standalone singles):
9: Baby, You Don’t Tripajahadra
8: Upside Down
7: Calm Before the Storm
6: Midnight
5: Horrible Kids
4: Elsewhere
3: Duality
2: Set It Off
1: Cinematics
Average discography rating (including singles): 6.8/10
Favorite Set It Off song: “I’d Rather Drown”
Discog Diaries Rankings:
ERRA: 8.4/10
Poison the Well: 8.2/10
Set It Off: 6.8/10
Ouch, that average hurts to look at as a fan of this band. But, hey, at least their good albums still hold up in the realm of emo. Thanks to everyone for reading, and make sure to check back in a couple weeks to see what artist we’ll examine next! Take care!