ALBUM REVIEW: Afterlife – Light Years

While never quite managing to boom into the same success levels of their contemporaries, LIGHT YEARS have dedicated themselves to nearly a decade of pop-punk tropes. The quartet have often flirted with the concept of a record that could lift their stock tenfold, but a game changing record has never quite come to fruition. Afterlife follows in this vein. What you find here is a record that at times shows genuine promise, but too often sounds like a lacklustre effort with little identity.

Opening track Back Then is a welcome start to proceedings though, punchy drum fills engulf rapid, yet serene guitar lines. It’s a high paced, punchy beginning to the affairs, but this level of quality is never maintained. Both Paradise and It Doesn’t Matter bring an unexpected tone of slick rock to Afterlife. It’s somewhat of a welcome surprise, and while neither manage to reinvent the wheel for LIGHT YEARS – it’s an example that the band can stray from their standard endeavours and still pull off something notable. Most akin to a pop punked version of THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, the melodic electric guitar tones are gratified here and offer a teasing hook.

But the biggest plague of Afterlife is that you seem to spend its 40 minute playthrough waiting for the track that defines the record to come along, it never does. There’s some perfectly acceptable pop punk songs here, Bottle Rocket and Graveyard are far from the worst efforts you’ll come across this year, but there’s virtually no stamp of authority throughout this album. The quality rarely reaches above decent, and LIGHT YEARS never manage to capture the fire that existed on tracks like The Summer She Broke My Heart and Are You Sure? on predecessor record I’ll See You When I See You.

Admittedly LIGHT YEARS are in a tough spot as a band. Their brushes of pop punk don’t match with the energy laden bands such as STATE CHAMPS, THE STORY SO FAR, or WSTR. But at the same time, their songwriting prowess doesn’t see them able to craft a sound that would garner attention from fans of bands at the more mature end of the spectrum like THE WONDER YEARS or NEW FOUND GLORY.

You have to give credit where it’s due, LIGHT YEARS are a band that have dug their nails into the ground and kept pushing forward in their tenure as an outfit. But when push comes to shove, we’re still waiting for an album that can go anywhere near taking their careers to the next level. Afterlife is another decent pop punk record from a band that are still waiting for their game changer.

Rating: 5/10

Afterlife is out now via Rude Records. 

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