The Menzingers - After The Party

After the Party is the fifth full-length installment by American punk outfit, The Menzingers.

 

The album tells tales of the ever concerning responsibility of becoming a fully fledged adult. Reminiscing about care free mentalities with details of adolescent mischief of years gone by. After the Party is quite literally a story that is being told after the party has come to an end, and the only thing left to do is immerse in memories and then tidy up.

 

This is not to say that the record has come from a band that have peaked and are clinging onto something that was prevalent with audiences in their early days. In fact, the album is quite the opposite. The songs are just plain fun, and this is what After the Party does well. The guitars are chunky, the hooks are pop punk and the accounts of imagery within this record are sublime. 

 

'Lookers' with its clean introduction bursts into a lively and heartwarming account of guitarist Greg Barnett's heartbreak and teenage memories. Uplifting and sincere, it perfectly sums up the theme that the rest of the record achieves so well. Other tracks can be heard embracing a sound that wouldn't have felt out of place back in 2006 and 'Bad Catholics' achieves this time frame. A time in alternative music history when Jimmy Eat World were rulers of that particular landscape.

 

However, this is 2017 and The Menzingers have kicked the year off with a great alternative collection of songs here. Very much an American pop rock record, After the Party is an album that was just too late for a part in any American Pie movie soundtracks. There are melodies that are brilliantly harnessed and executed by gritty vocal performances, guitars that are both punchy yet intricate and song structures and topics that conform to pop punk's most basic rules. While After the Party may not be the most original album ever created, it certainly is a great addition to the wider, punk rock record collection.

 

After the Party is available via Amazon and iTunes.