Merchandise

After The End

4AD Records

At first glance, the apparent influences, the Smiths and U2 might make you shake your head:  how can they put those together.  But they can, and to me, you can add in some late period Roxy Music and the Psych Furs’ Talk, Talk, Talk.  What you have is a terrific debut, one that is very 80s, but also very modern, without being postmodern.

Their lyrics are much darker than Bono ever wrote, but not as dark as Morrisey.  They’re less jaded than what Richard Butler wrote, but still withering in their assessments of people and situations.  They’re a little decadent in the Roxy style, but not so much that they don’t care.  Their music helps itself equally to all of these bands, but in a very smart way. Too much slicing and dicing to call themselves clones of anything. 

This is why I like them so much.  They don’t pin themselves down in a time where it’s increasingly hard to sound like yourself against all that has gone before. But they are very much themselves, and that’s more than good enough for me.

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Andrea Weiss