Review Summary: Far from perfect, but still solid.
When I first got (a)fternoon in the mail, I was quick to throw it in my CD player and start playing it. At first, it did seem a bit lacklustre, but since I was familiar with the 4 songs released through the website, I still enjoyed listening to it. Then I came upon "Falling into You" which is an amazing track all on it's own, and Communication, which drew on themes from the Fisherman song, succesfully bridging the gap between (m)orning and (a)fternoon.
It is incredibly obvious that this album fails to perform when it comes to the actual music. It contains a lot of musical repetition in all of the songs. This seems to be contrasted with the lyrics though. The lyrics use a lot of repetition too, but I feel that they do this effectively because they change subtley and interestingly as they do this, as in The Fight Song. before the solo, when Dave sings "Oh will you learn it with me? Will you ever learn? Oh, will you ever learn? You will never learn..."
And, this I just noticed, but the stagnant repetition of the music may be a theme of the album, since much of the music is devoted to frustrating, cyclic (Over & Over) relationships.
All in all, it's not their best, but if you give it a few listens it will definitely grow on you.
