There are barely any overdubs at all — just some backups, a few bits of percussion and maybe a guitar part here and there.

"[1]Influenced by The Faith, Rites of Spring continued to combine desperate introspective lyrics with angry melody-tinged songwriting that moved even further from the hardcore punk formula.

[4][5] Pitchfork online magazine ranked it number 96 on its list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s.

[6] It has appeared on various best-of emo album lists by Consequence of Sound,[7] Kerrang!,[8] LA Weekly,[9] and Rolling Stone,[10] as well as by journalists Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley in their book Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture (2007).

It was a volatile album, with Picciotto screaming lyrics that a different singer may have chosen to whisper.