The Afters - Never Going Back to OK
Producer: Dan Muckala
The Afters were always a bit of a puzzling act to me. I didn’t hear much on their debut record (I Wish We All Could Win) that really set them apart for me. However, they still managed to find quite a following (not surprising) as well as ended up with a lot of mainstream exposure due to their music appearing all over television and movies. The group was New Artist of the Year at the 2007 Dove Awards because of all the success. It’s been three long years since the release of their debut album - and that’s quite a gamble for a new artist who didn’t exactly hit the jack-pot on their debut but still had a larger fan base. I think The Afters’ fans will definitely agree that the wait was worth it with Never Going Back to OK. With production work from Dan Muckala (Mandy Moore, Nick Lachey, Brandon Heath), The Afters’ sophomore album is an extremely strong effort musically - recalling the likes of Fountains of Wayne or even MercyMe with shades of Downhere thrown in. The album kicks off with the audio illusion of “The Secret Parade” - a psychodelic album opener that features layers and layers of vocals - before kicking into the rock favorite “Never Going Back to OK” and the Goo-Goo Dolls flavored “Keeping Me Alive.” Never Going Back to OK is fully-loaded with friendly pop songs with extremely strong melodic hooks and catchy melodies - most notably seen on tracks like “Tonight”, “We Are the Sound”, and “Falling Into Place.” Even the band’s ballads are quite memorable - such as the beautiful “Summer Again” or “Beautiful Words.” Lyrically is where the band starts to fall short - never fully embracing Christian ideals nor ignoring them and going straight for the relationship based songs either. Most of the time, the listener is just left scratching their head as to what or who exactly the songs are talking about (biggest culprits here are tracks like “Tonight” or “Keeping Me Alive"). Overall, The Afters’ sophomore outing is definitely a step forward musically, though lyrically they still have some kinks to work out.
Purchase Never Going Back to OK
RATING:
Reader Comments
Page 1 of 1 Comment Pages
|
| ||||
|
Home | About Us | Features | Reviews | Pop Culture | Devotionals | News | Coming Up | Give-A-Ways | Archives Site Design by: SSE Design Group | |||||
.
Hey Chris,
Sligh here. Man, I think this album is the best album so far this year...slightly better than Leeland’s new one (which was a huge step up for them, I thought). I love this album.
I’d be interested to hear about why you thought the lyrics were not great. I actually thought lyrically this album was a huge step up for them from the first one. Very poetic while still relaying truth from a Christian worldview. Just my opinion, of course...but I’d love to get more of your thoughts on what you personally were looking for.
Thanks,
Sligh