On their new single “Masterplan,” indie rock band Afternoon In The Park burns with the latent voltage of a band, screamy, poetic, and unapologetically alive. Taken from their new concept album “Livin’ Around The Sun,” it’s a roaring ode to the band’s constantly changing musical identity where meaty guitar lines collide perfectly with personal, human stories of the rawest kind.
On “Masterplan,” the Paris-based quartet delivers a sharp, danceable jolt of pure rock energy, fusing distorted guitar swagger, rigid, propulsive drumming, and a vocal presence that seethes with openness and grit. Frontwoman Yamin Alma leads the narrative with a forceful but tender voice, unspooling a meditation on trust and mutual respect between men and women. It’s an unvarnished, dug-in consideration of emotional choreography at the core of contemporary relationships, told not in sentiment but in rhythm, riffs, and radiant urgency.
Based on Alma’s first demo sketches, the track turned into a full-blown epic thanks to the touches of Grammy-winning producer Gordon Raphael, the architect behind seminal recordings of The Strokes and Regina Spektor. Raphael’s participation infuses “Masterplan” with that irresistible push-pull of rawness and clarity, lending the band’s sound a combination of street-level verity and studio polish.
The band functions as one unit with Ari on electric guitar, Julien on drums and programming, and Thomas on bass. It evokes the manic romanticism of early Arctic Monkeys paired with the anthemic hooks of The Kooks. The result is a once familiar and urgent song, timeless and undeniably contemporary. As a single, “Masterplan” is a statement of purpose. Afternoon In The Park is carving out a place where rock can still swing, pulse, and, if you’re lucky, feel like it has something to say.
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