Two Stars
★★☆☆☆
There’s an interesting story behind LA-based five piece Afternoons. The band emerged as a side project of Irving in 2008 and received accidental success when graphic artist Shepard Fairey (the guy responsible for the Obama ‘Hope’ poster) sent their demos to a indie radio station. But just as things were getting going and their reputation growing, everything collapsed completely and they fell into the shadowy abyss occupied only by artists mercilessly dropped by their record label. Nearly six years on, the band is back with a new album, Say Yes, worthy of admiration if only because of the perseverance that must have gone into it.
The songs are fairly homogeneous, with few drawing much attention for themselves with the exception of ‘Oh Heather’, which begins with an atmospheric and sinister prologue from lead singer Steven Scott, a refreshing change from the monotonous and dare-we-say-it strained vocals and “yeah yeah”s that feature in much of the rest.
It is an inoffensive album, which, granted, does seem to get better as it goes on and finally moves away from the exhausted, noughties Americana featuring heavily in the opening tracks. ‘Said I Might’ admittedly has a certain nostalgic charm, with ‘60s perky pop echoes of The Turtles. But it’s not quite enough to prevent this album seeming just that bit too familiar.
By the end, it feels as though the band needed time to rebuild their thwarted confidence, introducing promising but uncommitted explorations of some more intriguing alternative rock.
