Review Summary: Your favourite new band
A ray of light breaking through post-sunshower clouds. Frolicking in a field on a summer vacation day off. The pivotal scene in an early 2000s rom-com where the lead finally sees that the love of their life is right in front of them. Pure joy. That’s what LA band After have conveyed on their two EPs this year.
After’s reference points are clear: “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia, “Pure Shores” by All Saints, and anything by Frou Frou. It’s Y2K pop with touches of breakbeat, trip-hop and indietronica to keep things interesting. Their sound is so powerfully nostalgic, it’s hard to believe a song like “The Field” came out in 2025 and not in 2002. Listening to the delicate, swirling synths on “Outbound” lead into its wistful verses and explosive, cathartic chorus, I’m instantly transported to a childhood happier than the one I actually had. The nostalgia is transformative.
It’s so rare and exciting for a new band to have pinpointed such a specific sound and executed it this well, so early into their career. After aren’t the only artist finding success with a throwback-pop formula, but where Hatchie might lack some curiosity and Magdalena Bay might not always excel at earnestness, After bring both in spades.
The only potential critique could be that their sound may soon end up boxed into its niche, however
EP 2’s “Baroque” is an immediate counterpoint, with its crunchy guitars and gritty vocals drawing more from Paramore’s
All We Know Is Falling than from their usual influences. If they can continue throwing such curveballs, while remaining true to their life-affirming pop roots, they’re set for a huge career and will hopefully be soundtracking the rom-coms of today.
