The Afterparty

Restless EP

Written by: TL on 02/08/2012 23:42:25

It has not been a particularly productive day for me in any area really, and to try and make up for this, I want to see if I can just squeeze out a quick review. The topic is the "Restless" EP by English five-piece The Afterparty, whom I happened to check out on one of the smaller stages at last year's Hevy Music Festival. The band plays an energetic, up-beat and highly forthcoming brand of pop-rock, and it seems to me their closest point of reference is Kids In Glass Houses, especially due to how the vocals of Nic Matthews - who is a mainstay in the front of the band's soundscape - sound quite a bit like the sharp croon of KIGH frontman Aled Phillips.

The good news about The Afterparty is that even this early in their career, they show with the four tracks offered on this EP that they have a penchant for catchyness. All four numbers are up-tempo, bright and bouncy, and as is evident from the shameless "aaah-ahh-ah-ah" refrain that opens this record, The Afterparty have no intentions of staying in any sort of underground niche. This band clearly wants to get as many people listening as quickly as they can, maybe hopefully gracing some radio shows soon as well, and to their credit, instantly sticky songs like especially opener "Sticks And Stones" and third track "Diamond Eyes" are of the sort that could one day get them there.

For all the decency offered in the departments of both songwriting and early production values however, I still think The Afterparty need to come up bigger to face anything but a steep uphill battle for attention. The reason is that the British scene for catchy rock is booming, and the audience is spoilt for choice. Even if we imagine a group of music fans that strictly want to listen to music from this particular stylistical neck of the woods, then bands like KIGH, Natives - and if we stretch it just a bit also Canterbury and The Dangerous Summer (who are from the US though) - are already around, grabbing attention with more accomplished material. Then of course, this is just a debut EP, so it might be a little unfair to expect The Afterparty to compete on that level just yet, and from that perspective, I guess it's cool to hear that they already have some tunes that should help them start some singalongs, playing both their local circuit and the various support slots the future likely has in store for them.

Download: Sticks And Stones, Diamond Eyes
For The Fans Of: Kids In Glass Houses, Natives, The Dangerous Summer
Listen: facebook.com/theafterpartyofficial

Release Date 02.07.2012
Engineer Records

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