The Afternoons "Sweet Action"

The Afternoons are a Cardiff, UK band that uses smooth vocal harmonies and percussion to get the point across. Richard Griffiths vocal style sounds a lot like Ray Davies. The Afternoons are a perfect pop combination of Belle and Sebastian and/or The Shins with the Kinks guitars and lyrical Britishness. The fourth album, “Sweet Action” builds on the previous success of “Rocket Summer” with more bouncy pop hooks than ever. “High Summer Lover” and “Giving Up On You” are excellent singles with a combination of Giffiths and Sarah Rapis’ contrasting vocals. The instrumentation of the title track (“Sweet Action”) chugs along at a good pace. The cool synths get louder in “The Silver Age” and give me flashbacks of Echo & The Bunnymen. Other good songs here are “We Could Start Over” and the amazing “Don’t Look Back” where you swear the jangle can take you back in time – it’s my favorite track here. The softer tracks on the album (“Where The Arrow Falls”) are almost too neat and tidy and aren’t as successful. The ending track here is a fitting bittersweet finale, “Winter is Dead” is a beautiful slow echoing fade with guitar, harmonica and piano. I would love a cover of “Waterloo Sunset” here, but maybe that’s asking too much. Overall, a very good album, worthy of your ipod.

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