• by Teresa Buyikian , September 25, 2026

Wendy’s is leaning into the Y2K nostalgia trend by releasing a soundtrack made for emotional parking lot dramas. 

The brand this week dropped an actual emo album, the 2000s genre marked by moody fans with black eyeliner, side-swept bangs, red-and-black contrast clothing and skeleton motifs.

Entitled “Songs to Listen to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot,” the album – available here on Spotify – was created to serve as a soundtrack for customers who “have turned Wendy’s parking lots into an unexpected backdrop for documenting life’s emotional moments.”

The album isn’t thrown-together AI slop. Wendy’s brought in multi-platinum producer and songwriter Matt Squire, who has worked with such bands as Panic! at the Disco and Sum 41, as well as a full line up of artists that “who know exactly how to turn heartbreak, nostalgia and existential dread into a catchy chorus.”

The album includes such emo-appropriate titles as “She Said She Didn’t Want Fries (She Lied),” “Salt in the Wound,” “It’s Not a Phase, It’s a 10PC,” “My Frosty’s Funeral,” and “The Best Combo Meal on the Worst Night of My Life.”

“Emo has always been about the small moments that feel huge. A younger generation is discovering that now, and the older fans never stopped feeling it,” says Squire. “Enjoying a Wendy’s Frosty in a parking lot might sound like a small moment, but everybody's had a night where that was the only thing that went right.”

A video promoting the album (see above) includes behind-the-scenes recording studio footage and shows the soundtrack being played on an old school CD boombox. 

Artists on the album include Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire and Anberlin, Chloe Kinnon of Winona Fighter, Shane Told of Silverstein, Beau Bokan of Blessthefall, Derek DiScanio of State Champs and Kat Leon of Holy Wars. 

“Songs to Listen to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot” serves as a follow up to Wendy’s 2018 “We Beefin’?” hip-hop mix tape release.