AFI - ‘Crash Love’

So where do AFI go they have reached the top? Further upwards seems to be their answer...

Rating: 8AFI’s eighth album Crash Love, recorded once with David Bottrill, scrapped and then re-recorded with Jacknife Lee and Joe McGrath, is the band’s most important offering to date. 2006’s Decemberunderground was a number one album, produced by the greatly missed Jerry Finn and a fitting climax to fifteen years hard work. So where do AFI go they have reached the top? Further upwards seems to be their answer as Crash Love continues climbing skywards with ambitiously melodic tracks that are slower, less obvious and perhaps more compelling as a result. Highlights are scattered throughout the album but they do not come forward immediately, the album demands your time, your attention and your lack of prejudice for it to shine. AFI are a great band, this is a good record and it does not strand fans by wholly transcending their discography, but that strength is also the weakness of Crash Love, what keeps it familiar also holds it back from being an amazing slice of timeless rock music. This album reaches slowly, it does not grab you immediately, it will be interesting to see whether the band’s rabid fanbase take to Crash Love’s softer, more tactile embrace.

For fans of: The Smiths, Samhain, Alkaline Trio

Andrew Kelham