{"id":856419,"date":"2026-09-22T08:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856419\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T08:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:56:11","slug":"after-fell-asleep-in-the-sun-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856419\/","title":{"rendered":"After: Fell Asleep in the Sun Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham Epstein and Justine Dorsey are a match made in platonic-friendship<\/a> heaven. The members of After<\/a>\u2014their anachronistic \u201ctrip-pop\u201d band\u2014were born on the same day in 1995; Epstein told The Cut<\/a> that his pickup line after they matched on Hinge was \u201cDo you like Creed?\u201d; she listens to Addison Rae<\/a> and he likes French Canadian black metal, but you know what, they both love Coldplay<\/a>. They might\u2019ve met in search of romance, but they were destined to be besties and creative collaborators: the musical equivalent of Delaney Rowe\u2019s 2000s rom-com parody, which blew up on TikTok for its spot-on satire of its era. It\u2019s cute, it\u2019s endearing, it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

Like Rowe, After went viral last year for being scarily good at imitating \u201900s media. The difference is that the L.A. duo admirably sees itself as above a gimmick; their mission, they told Rolling Stone<\/a>, is to make you \u201cmiss a memory you never had.\u201d Into this state-of-the-art cocktail of zillenial yesterday, they pour the pure ephemera of new-millennium breakbeat pop<\/a>, the heartfelt edginess of Bush-era mall rock<\/a>, and the fantastical normalcy of a Tucsan mom<\/a>\u2019s adult-contemporary CD collection. On their full-length debut, Fell Asleep in the Sun, After continue to survey these sounds and feelings\u2014but beyond pretty, era-accurate production, they can\u2019t muster the conviction or atmosphere to really take us there. This is a set of nebulous love songs whose melancholic narrative is spoiled by flat lyricism and unfulfilling pop arrangements.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

As on their prior EPs<\/a>, After\u2019s ideas sound fascinating in theory but fail in execution. Epstein described the genesis of the duo\u2019s songwriting process to The Cut: Dorsey would sing over drum loops from Akira Yamaoka\u2019s macabre Silent Hill soundtracks, then he\u2019d fit them with dramatic string arrangements. It\u2019s exactly what we hear on opener \u201cTake Me to Sunrise,\u201d a song that could be about unrequited love or the album\u2019s main theme of taking refuge in the past. Either way, the music offers little substance. Dorsey\u2019s lyrics describe almost nothing about this \u201cplace [she\u2019s] been before,\u201d only that it\u2019s \u201cfar away\u201d and that we could totally \u201cstay there if you want to.\u201d Epstein and collaborator Jackson Shanks\u2019 production should be there to fill in the blanks, but the stale acoustic shuffle doesn\u2019t get the boost from those strings that it should\u2014they\u2019re hastily shoved into the hook and sour Dorsey\u2019s gorgeous self-duet at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreathe Your Air\u201d hits the Yamaoka-does-pop note far better, with a dulcet, snail-paced breakbeat that contrasts beautifully with the poppy synth flourishes. \u201cBlind\u201d is the duo\u2019s most original song to date, probably because it\u2019s not trying to be something as amorphous as \u201ctrip-pop\u201d; it\u2019s a pull-no-punches alt-rock track with twinkling pianos and stinging lead guitar, and the vocal duet\u2014burrowed just deep enough in the mix\u2014sounds magnificent. They\u2019re good songs that should be great, and the sense of burgeoning light dimmed by severe lapses in songwriting makes Fell Asleep in the Sun especially frustrating. Angst manifests in superficial questions like \u201cWhere did you go?\u201d and \u201cDo you even care?,\u201d no matter if the music is at its brightest or darkest. The instrumentals attempt to sell the imagery\u2014sample-CD hip-hop bricolage paired with whimsical ROMpler sounds to conjure that \u201900s normalcy-meets-fantasy feeling\u2014but dull lyrics and anemic pop structures shortchange what could\u2019ve been a desolate narrative of confusion, memory, and unreturned love.<\/p>\n