Music Review // Alex Coley & Afterlove "Courage and Crime"

 

The sound of Alex Coley & Afterlove can be somewhere along the lines of "Wildflowers" era Tom Petty and The Wallflowers.   This is rock but in that slow, winding way which comes out somewhere between country and folk.   While the tempo of the song is slower, it also just feels closer to a ballad.  

One of my favorite lines in this song is "I'm obsessing on whatever it is that's stopping me here".   I'm not sure how the crime fits into this song exactly, but the idea that needing courage and having it come from obsession is relatable.  The idea that you're going to put all of your focus on this one thing stopping you and not let up until you break it is something we should be hearing more about in song.

As this song begins with lyrics which relate to the theme of it, there isn't a typical verse/chorus/verse style, as the title of the song doesn't come up in the lyrics until near the very end.   I've always enjoyed when songs do this, especially the slower songs, and it feels like something rock has done for a while but forgot about more recently.

Whether you're a fan of this style of music or not doesn't seem as important as the message it conveys.  Wanting to have that courage to do something we need to do is a feeling I think we've all felt before.  Now, with the help of Alex Coley & Afterlove and this song, you can begin to summon that courage with a little bit of help.