After Edmund – Hello

CD REVIEW

After Edmund’s debut album positions this Georgia-based group into the Christian alt.rock genre occupied by the likes of Switchfoot. Unlike Switchfoot, After Edmund (named after a character in The Chronicles Of Narnia) is not likely to cross over into the mainstream to join the likes of Yellowcard or Jimmy Eats World.

The hooks are there, as are the impassioned vocals, anthemic choruses and undoubted instrumental competence. The group tries to innovate, but ends up sounding derivative. Sometimes it all seems a bit like Coldplay, with the singer even affecting Chris Martin’s whiney voice periodically.

Yet, while Hello is generally a reasonable, inoffensive album within its genre, and at times even promising, there is little to remember its songs by. With less skilled production, parts of this album might well have turned out to be a mess.

The album’s description on the band’s website alluding to the Beatles and Pink Floyd is a misleading fancy based on only one rather pedestrian song, “To See You Leave”.

The lyrics are conventional appeals to God and Jesus. Betraying After Edmund’s emo roots, they tend to be written from the perspective of a troubled soul in need of solace in God’s presence

Listen to: Like A Dream; Come And Rain Down; Clouds; Fighting For Your Heart (Let It Go)