Customer Reviews

After the Snow

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is probably my favorite early 80's so called "New Wave" album. I wouldn't even put this album in the New Wave or any other category, because I believe it shows a truly original creativity that transcends any genre. This record creates an "atmosphere" that takes the listener on a beautiful trip. I would compare it to a walk with your lover on a wonderful fall day in an English garden; you never tire of the feeling it gives. Personal favorites include "Someone's Calling" and "Face of Wood," but all the songs flow together as if being played in a suite. I think the entire album shows wonderful attention to detail in both lyrics and musicianship. In an era where a band's looks in it's videos were the most important element, Modern English threw that concept out the window and contributed an artisitc statement and musical feel that few bands from that era could capture. Ever notice how a winter snowfall brings beauty to everything it covers? "After the Snow" will add beauty and wonder to your CD collection.

After the Snow is truly an expression of Eighties music at its near-best. In addition to the euphoric and well-known "I Melt With You," After the Snow contains 7 other (mostly) great songs, as well as 5 bonus tracks. What we find here is rich '80s New Wave rock, held together by a gentle, distinctly folky mellowness ("Carry Me Down" even features a trilling flute and a gentle acoustic guitar) that's just British enough to be umistakeably a gem of an era gone for nearly 15 years, and to resemble The Cure's less depressing times. This calm sound, parallel with Robbie Grey's clear, deadpan English vocals is decorated sparsely with thin, jerky guitars worthy of early Siouxsie and the Banshees or U2. The two contrasting styles compliment each other quite nicely, and are punctuated occasionally by Stephen Walker's bubbly, robotic keyboards, which sound as if they remain buried in the mix for most of each song and are only allowed to come up for air every once in a while. These keyboards can sound typically and humorously '80s, but overall they do not detract from the soung. The songs, conveniently helped along by their folkiness, mostly center on reflection and often the beauty of nature, but at times can escalate into tense, dark cynicism, as as in the dark reminsicience of "After the Snow". These explosions have more in common with the darker, '80s Goth bands; unexpected in light of the more optimistic tone of this CD, but not totally mysterious, since After the Snow was released on 4AD, the division of Beggar's Banquet, which has been home to such Goth greats as Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, The Birthday Party, Gary Numan and The Cult. While delineating each aspect of this music may make each one sound clashing or egregious they blend together very harmoniously. This album may be too calm or bland for some, but I highly recommend it to fans of New Wave or other '80s styles, and younger fans raised on more recent Alternative Rock may find something relaxing and pleasant here.

The obvious one-hit wonder label applies to Modern English, but the work on this album runs deeper if you give it a chance. This effort is listenable throughout and shows more complexity and subtlety than the band was ever given credit for. I prefer this collection, which includes "After the Snow" and "Carry Me Down" to the greatest hits or anthology packages available for Modern English. Overall, this albums still holds up.

"Melt With You" is synonymous with an era, no doubt about it. But should the album whence it sprang be relegated to oblivion?

I think not. While "Melt With You" might be early-80s pop of the moodiest and most perversely populist sort, the rest of the album is imbued with a personality of its own. "Life in the Gladhouse" is a stomping beast that gallops along to its own beat. "Dawn Chorus" and "Face of Wood" all have elements that linger in the recesses of memory. "Carry Me Down" is almost wistfully medieval in its execution, yet not in a pretentious proggy way. For the most part, the album's production aptly presents the music in a competent manner.

The bonus tracks that are tacked on the back of this re-issue are rather cumbersome, since most are demos and alternate takes. "The Choiciest View" is an interesting addition, since it somehow degenerates into self-indulgent feedback shenanigans of the most V.U.-esque quality.

Overall, this is worth checking out if you're a fan of post-punk bands. Synth-pop this isn't, mind you, and neither is it sparse Gang of Four/Public Image Ltd.-circa 1979 stuff. It's more along the lines of a less austere Joy Division having a crack at fun.

Final verdict: Recommended.

After The Snow is a stand-out in the vast crowd of 80's popular music and pop icons. It is unfortunate Modern English have been dismissed as one-hit wonders, because the album is worth listening to from start to end. If you were into what was then "progressive" music in the early to mid 80's, I Melt With You defined that era of music. Funny enough, I believe I have four or five different CD's (albums, soundtracks, collections) that contain that song. This is probably the most valued recording in my collection.

Driven by the memorable, radio-friendly hit single "I melt with you", ME's second album was quite a commercial success for the band's tiny record label 4AD. While much of early-'80s music sounds xeroxed and outdated today, "After the snow" is still one of my favorites from that era. I didn't even know that "I melt with you" had been a hit. The band knows how to create musical tension even within the 4-minute song format, as the dramatic "Someone's calling", "Face of wood", or the title cut prove. "Life in the gladhouse" was a favorite in UK dance club. "Dawn chorus" and "Carry me down" are slow, pretty numbers while the faster "Tables turning" reminds you of ME's punk roots. The bonus tracks here are not as interesting as those of ME's other albums; the remixes of "Someone's calling", "Life in..", and "I melt.." just have more echo/reverb or a different drum track. The 11 1/2-minute "The choicest view" feels overblown, it's rather allied to progressive rock bands like Rush. Nevertheless, "After the snow" is indeed essential to any with a weakness for the percussive, melodic wave-rock propagated by this group.

Forget "I melt with you." I haven't been able to listen to that song in about 10 years (from overplay). This album is much more than that once enjoyable song. In fact I just listened to it and after owning this album since around 1985 I think it has dated well and is very solid. It's certainly very much of its era, but if you like early '80s new wave at all this would be a good album to own.

I also recommend _Ricochet Days_ as being equal to _After the Snow_, although I haven't heard it in over 10 or 12 years. It's been out of print in the U.S.

There is definitely more than one great song on this album, definitely, but one of those songs is so great, so catchy, and so original that all the other songs can't help but look a little paler when placed next to it.
"I'll Melt With You" has seriously got to be one of the best songs ever--the "Don't Fear the Reaper" of 1980s New Wave--epic, anthemic, wildly structured, feel-good, and evidently made for driving and singing along. What a song! What a song.
"I'll Melt With You" is a song that simaltaneously defines and transcends the 1980s--the wildness of an effeminately dressed and coifed rebellion, the happiness of smiling hooligans, the sort of time when everyone (everyone white and middle class and American, anyway) seemed to say "That's cool" instead of "That sucks."
I lived through it as a kid, and I'm still living through it through my older brothers and through music such as this.
"I'll Melt With You" is almost enough to make this a five-star album, and maybe it is enough. The other seven songs are generally catchy as well, if a bit Duran Duran-esque and a bit dated. They haven't aged quite as well as most of The Smiths' songs.
If I were to make a mix tape with one or two songs for every decade, I'd probably have "I'll Melt With You" represent the '80s. It deserves its reputation as a classic, and this album, "After the Snow," deserves a good listen.

This album serves as a portrait of truly exquisite early 80's new wave - if they took off "Melt With You", which fits this album like a square peg in a round hole, "After The Snow" would be just about perfect. (I must note that I'm only familiar with the original, not the "bonus tracks" version) The only song on this album that has a pop sound (besides "Melt With You") is "Someone's Calling", which is still a standout (awesome percussion), especially played loud. The rest of the album is atmospheric and has that sparse, choppy yet melodic and raw sound that die-hard fans like me really love about new wave. Unlike the manufactured garbage du jour, this album has an honest and almost spiritual quality about it. It's not for your casual 80's music fan; this album packs substance and lacks the sheen and gloss of much of the era's offerings.

This album is definitively for those who like the 80's progressive bands. At first, I bought the record for the song "I Melt With You", which I find fascinating. But, if you let all the album play, you will discover great musical arrangements and a musical style that won't get buried in the 80's: it still sounds different and I think that is a great album to have in your collection. About the 4 stars, well... just for the song I Melt With You, I would rate it up to 5. There are newer versions, mixes and so of this song, but if you have listened it, this is the one that's worth it.