DeViCom CD-Review: Everclear - So Much for the Afterglow

Sparkle and Fade became a big a big surprise and national hit with the smahing hit single "Santa Monica", showing the best musical sites of Everclear by presenting a rough, row and infectious sound. Two years later it seems that with So Much for the Afterglow the band developed and grew up to an adult hard rock band. The album does not include all the straight and rough energy you may know by the former recordings, rather it has more though-out songs with deeper structures such as "I Will Buy You a New Life", presenting a slowed-down, kind of sweet pop/rock ballad at his best. And, as the title suggests — as well as song titles like "One Hit Wonder," "White Men in Black Suits" and "Everything to Everyone" — Alexakis is feeling a bit ambivalent about his success, believing that it's only a transient thing. This fact makes the recording even a bit more melancholic than Sparkle and Fade. The LP cannot present such a catchy song like "Santa Monica" indeed. Maybe "Father of Mine" reaches its quality fairly. But that is not the band's aim, rather they attempt to compensate by adding a more elaborate production, complete with Beach Boys harmonies and guest musicians. The result sounds cluttered, not symphonic, and distracts from Everclear's strength as a straight-ahead grunge trio. All in all So Much for the Afterglow became a decent record including some tough highlights but they aren't enough to excuse the confused attempts at progression that make the longplayer a muddled affair.