Album: I Wish We All Could Win
Artist: The Afters
Label: Simple/INO
Sounds like: Switchfoot, The Normals

It’s true—not everyone can win, but this Texas quartet gives it a fair shot. “Beautiful love” introduces a guitar riff that has an oscillating but celestial Coldplay-like tone, complimented by a Chris Martin or Thom Yorke-like stretching of vocal notes, qualities that are continued throughout the album. These are sandwiched in-between sparkly acoustic guitar strumming backed by strings, and Bleach-like rocking. Much like Switchfoot. It has indie roots, but a fair amount of spit and polish—more than the disarming cover and album title may suggest. There’s a certain predictability in the lyrics too—in the song “You,” you know that “in my heart” will be followed by “in my soul”—but overall there’s enough refined grunt to get them over the line.

Three out of Five