Friendlier Up Here

On their MySpace page, The Aftermath lay claim to The Fall and Pavement as influences. Listening to their debut album you would, however, be hard pushed to draw a connection between those bands’ shambolic art-punk and this Anglo-Irish quartet’s twist on guitar pop.
Opening track ‘Are You Not Wanting Me Yet?’ is typical of the LP – it begins promisingly, borrowing the spiraling lead riff from Supergrass’ ‘Grace’, before plunging headlong into a melodramatic chorus, unnecessarily grandiose in its delivery. Indeed the record is frequently bogged down with sheer bombast. Quite a few cuts work to a self-consciously anthemic crescendo (‘Need’) or a sub-Britpop percussive stomp (‘Hollywood Remake’), while ‘Northern Lingerie’ is a not entirely successful shot at a third-person character study, the sort of thing Alex Turner and cohorts boxed off long ago.
Still, ‘Dejection’ wears its subtle Elastica-like charm well and the sparsely arranged ‘Overlooking Paris’, on which Johnny Cronin’s gruff baritone offers more grit than all the other tracks combined, is a real treasure. It’s heartening to hear the band take flight as soon as they seem to stop trying so hard – which leads to perhaps the biggest contradiction of all. If they manage to lose the over-ambition, The Aftermath could go far.

Key Track: ‘Overlooking Paris’