Yours Truly - Afterglow EP
Afterglow has allowed Yours Truly to broaden their horizons, and they will do great things off the back of this EP. Afterglow rocks and rolls its way into our hearts.
They are the pop-punk darlings from Sydney, Australia. They are UNFD’s hottest new signing. They are Yours Truly, and they are here with their new EP Afterglow. Yours Truly have taken off in the last year, and have capitalised on that by jumping on tour with Between You And Me, playing a movement inducing set at Unify Gathering, and performing in one of the headline slots at the brand new US Fest in Sydney. They will also be joining huge Australian act Hellions on their upcoming tour, and are firmly set to continue to smash it once Afterglow is released.
Afterglow rocks and rolls its way into our hearts with opening track “Circles”. An empowering song about rejecting female stereotypes, this combines the passionate vocals and lyrics with the ear-catching instrumentals to form an all-round good song. The powerful vocals of Mikaila Delgado match the tone of the lyrics completely, as she is clearly sick of being treated differently due to her gender, and comes across as being full of emotion, particularly with frustration and determination.
“The way you act ain’t right, and I’m over it / Frankly I’m just sick of it, what makes me different to you?”
The instrumentals are already showing that Yours Truly have taken a step up with their sound. Everything sounds much more polished, and it’s clear they have each poured their heart and soul into this EP.
The upwards momentum continues with “I Can’t Feel”. A particularly rock sound is evident throughout, with deep grindy riffs shredding constantly behind the fore-fronted vocals. The chorus is immeasurably catchy, and is held up by the toe-tapping and head-nodding bouncy verses that are a mainstay of “I Can’t Feel”. This all leads up to the climax of the song, which features a hard-hitting key change, taking everything to a harsher and harder level for the final chorus. As if revving an engine, the guttural guitars move into sixth gear and bring home “I Can’t Feel” cleanly and quickly.
The next song, “High Hopes”, was originally released in January of 2018, and is currently sitting on 3.1 million views on YouTube, as well as 1.5 million streams on Spotify. This isn’t a coincidence as it is a phenomenal track. Super catchy and exploring themes of ambition and disappointment in people, the future pop-punk anthem powerfully plants itself in your mind where it will relentlessly play on repeat for days to come.
Heading now into uncharted territory, (every song before now had been pre-released as a single), we get carried away by “Delusional Paradise”. Dreamlike guitars open it up, before taking your hand and guiding you into the slow rocking verses. Lightly revving guitars and mesmerizing vocals make up the chorus, where this soft and harmonious section of the song makes you sway, surrounding you with the smooth waves of sound. The rest of the song is kicked up a notch, as the appearance of Between You And Me vocalist Jake Wilson features throughout the rest of the track. Jake’s vocals add a sense of harshness to the song, and while that happens Mikaila steps up her own intensity to meet it. “Delusional Paradise” ends with a huge sounding bridge and a faster and even bigger final chorus, and closes out a bloody good rock song.
Finally we have the closing track, “Afterglow”. Mikaila’s vocals welcome us with a sense of sombreness. Soft and matching the slow guitars, she apologises for what she did, before the rest of the instrumentals kick in. A melancholic riff dominates, before proceeding into the much faster and heavier verses. Then as if they leap off a cliff, Yours Truly fly above the clouds with this fantastic chorus. Unbelievably catchy and powerful it is noticeable just how much they have pushed themselves vocally and instrumentally. “Afterglow” is the strong closer that this EP needs, and is a showcase of everything Yours Truly have to offer, as is the entire EP.
Afterglow has allowed Yours Truly to broaden their horizons. They have expanded on their original straightforward pop-punk sound, and have added in aspects of rock, alternative, and heavier music to their sound. It all comes together to form this terrific sound that Yours Truly varied around throughout the entirety of Afterglow. “High Hopes”, “I Can’t Feel”, and “Circles” have already done very well, but there is no doubt in my mind that the other two songs off the release will take off just as much, if not more.
Yours Truly will do great things off the back of this EP, and I can’t wait to see where they stand in the scene in a few years.