Friday, May 05, 2006

The Afters: "I Wish We All Could Win"


It took a number of years for this Dallas-based rock band to hit it big.

Josh Havens and Matt Fuqua were Starbucks employees in Mesquite, TX who played a few acoustic songs in the store when it was slow.

Before long there band grew and they were playing to packed out houses at The Door club in Dallas...they called themselves Blisse and released their first local album When the World is Wonderful in 2002.

But a little over a year ago they released their first national album under the name The Afters. This album called "I Wish We All Could Win" named from a line in the song "Someday."

By far the most successful song off the album has been "Beautiful Love." This song has become the theme song to the MTV reality series "8th and Ocean." This song was written by lead vocalist Josh Havens shortly after he got married and his wife was away on a mission trip to Mexico. (This song also

Beautiful Love is not the only song that has become a theme song for a television show. The energetic song "Until the World" is also the theme song for the ABC television show "Beautiful People."

But the music from The Afters national release album is much richer than just songs for television shows about models.

Songs like "Someday" and "The Way You Are" allow the band to incorporate a deeper heavier town. Other songs are more melodic like "Thank God I'm Not the One" or the pastoral "Love Lead Me On." Also nice and soothing is the accoustic song "Wait."

One of the hardest things for me with this album is that I am very familiar with the Blisse-style of performing "The Way You Are" one of my favorite songs on the album, namely for it's driving beat and creative and catchy lyrics. Yet it's a marked transition to a definite post-grundge produced sound which is a little less gritty then I'm used to. But by far this song is one of the true treasures on the album.

"The Way You Are" is not the only song to be recycled from Blisse's "When The World Is Wonderful album. "Until the World" and "You" also appeared on the 2002 release.

This album is a great edition to world of rock music, because it's a fun album with a lot of diversity. The Afters remind me a lot of Jeremy Camp because their music is appropriate for the Adult contemporary genre as well as the rock/alternative genre.

If you're not going to buy the album let me rank the top 5 songs worth downloading from itunes:

1. Beautiful Love
2. The Way You Are
3. You
4. Love Will Make You Beautiful
5. Someday


The Afters are: Joshua Havens, Matthew Fuqua, Marc Dodd & Brad Wigg.
There website can be found at theafters.com

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6 comments:

Julie D. said...

I thought this was a pretty good effort for a first album. However, I am really looking forward to their second or third albums when they will have reached a little more maturity in their songwriting ... they have real potential.

Anonymous said...

RC, are you a fellow Texan? I am gonna have to go put Reverend Horton Heat on my log now if you are....

-Melanie of
melanaise.blogspot.com

Jon said...

Hmmm...wouldn't that be interesting? RC, a TEXAN??

Ben said...

The Afters are a great new band and I love the song Beautiful Love and I was flipping through the TV and saw the video on MTV. Christian music is getting better and with bands like POD, Switchfoot, Reliant K and now The Afters, Christian music is getting the attention it so desperately deserves.

Ben from crossfiremusic.blogspot.com

A.L. Harper said...

I think it is biased. Or you have very bland taste in music. There is nothing post grunge about The Afters except the date on which it was recorded. But that is the beautiful thing about reviews they are only opinion.

I also think this is a very well written review.

Miss Scarlet said...

Your review is much better than mine;)