Late Night Social is the debut full-length album from the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based indie pop band, The After Hours. Late Night Social compiles all the tracks the band has released over the last couple of years, in addition to brand new songs, for a fully immersive dream pop dance party. The album also leaves time to slow dance, or sit and reflect.
The watery synths, jangly guitars, and dancy drums serve as the perfect canvas for the group’s co-lead vocalists to paint pictures of life’s emotional ups and downs: reckless happiness, personal regression, solitude, forgotten lovers, and plenty of internal and external relational qualms.
The album begins with “My Type”, in which syncopated, tension building guitar and bass notes set the scene over a swirl of white noise. We are then greeted by the octave harmony lead-vocals that will guide us through the album’s entirety. The song quickly builds into a catchy “ba ba ba” vocal refrain, like an alternative pop Johnny Cash and June Carter.
This track is followed by “Back Here Again”, whose jangly, ‘verbed out guitar line would be at home in any decade from the 1980s and onwards, and a dance-worthy back beat. The punctuated higher vocal parts counter the lower to create the illusion of a back-and-forth conversation.
The album is primarily divided into two different camps of songs: upbeat indie dance pop and more contemplative, new wave. The latter camp is highlighted in tracks like “Heaven Knows”, “Alone, and “In A Little While”, which all have beautiful entrancing vocals that intertwine and leapfrog each other in a poetic and powerful partnership. The cascading guitar line, waterbed of synthesizers, and elliptical vocal melody of “Alone” make it another of the album’s stand-out moments.The other half of the album is driven by The After Hours’ rhythm section, whose high-energy, thumping basslines and mesmerizing snare hits you can feel in your soul and the souls of your feet. If you feel like dancing, whether for joy or to work out life’s complexities, put on this record and enjoy. Late Night Social is out now digitally and on cassette.
Written by John Brouk
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