The Mysterines – 'Afraid Of Tomorrows' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. The Last Dance

2. Stray

3. Another Another Another

4. Tired Animal

5. Jesse You're A Superstar

6. Hawkmoon

7. Sink Ya Teeth

8. Junkyard Angel

9. Goodbye Sunshine

10. Inside A Matchbox

11. So Long

12. Afraid of Tomorrows

The second album from the Mysterines has landed and it’s a grungy, dark, indie rock masterpiece.

On first listen it feels like the band have taken a big risk, this is a boundary pushing, genre defining leap into the dark in more ways than one. The band have clearly gone into the studio to make a statement about who they are and where they want to go. As statements go this is an incredibly strong one.

Repeated listens make you realise just how many layers there are to this album, it’s dark, it explores thoughts and ideas that hide in the recesses of our mind and it does it all with a style that the band are clearly staking a claim to be all their own.

What it reminded me of as I couldn’t stop listening is the first time I heard Mazy Starrs So tonight that I might see, not the same type of record but it has that same feel of a band who are absolutely on it, know exactly what they want to sound like and have totally nailed it.

Unusually these days, it has a flow of being a body of work that demands you need to listen to it in the order the band intended. It’s not a record to dip in and out of or shuffle, it works as a proper, old fashioned, album. It demands, and deserves, to be the kind of album you put on, sit back and give your full attention to. It’s a sonic masterpiece with vocals and lyrics just fitting the mood perfectly. It’s the album that this years indie rock releases need to be measured against, in fact, scrap that, it’s too good to be limited to just one year. It’s got the potential to be genre defining, it really is that good.

Let’s be clear, you won’t put it on as a way to get most parties going, although maybe it’s the perfect soundtrack for the kind of parties you have, but on the whole it’s the kind of album that deserves your undivided attention. I can see it it being plundered for film soundtracks, there is a cinematic quality to the music that would work perfectly for an unsettling and demanding film that needs the kind of music that you have instead of dialogue. There’s a scene in the original Manhunter film where the anti-hero is trying to stop the red dragon from killing someone in his house which is perfectly soundtracked, film directors take note, listen to this album, you will find the intense song you need.

Best song? Nope, I’m not playing that game with this album, with many records I review there are a couple of standout tracks, the type you think I could add to a playlist. That’s not the case with this album, it’s too perfect as a full body of work, I will only listen to it as an album, this is the kind of album music streaming sites need to bring back, the long player and stop the shuffle.

Quite simply if you want to enjoy an album that will demand your attention, make you slowly fall in love with it and which will become a treasured part of your collection then this is it. I know it’s a strange thing to say but it’s not the kind of album you buy off of a well known delivery website, its the kind of album you go into your local indie record shop and buy on vinyl, that you take home and put a plastic protector around and you treasure. It is that good, in fact it's outstanding.