Album Review: Light After The Dark

Light After The Dark with its baker’s dozen of tunes is an infectious album that will uplift your soul.

Award-winning indie folk stars Albi & the Wolves have created something of a wandering marching band for their third studio album which has made its way onto vinyl – one tick off their hopefully ambitious bucket list!

Released on the 13th of October, this album isn’t afraid to change its direction from song to song, and if it threatens to get lost anywhere along the way, the overarching theme of hope ties it all together and carries the listener with it.

Chris Dent (the proud albino front man Albi), Pascal Roggen and Micheal Young have added horns, strings and drums to their acoustic guitar, electric violin, double bass, and voices for this album which results in a much bigger sound overall. It feels so close to having the band playing just for you in your living room – which is amazing, these guys are incredible live!

Right from the catchy first track Next to Me, Light After The Dark takes you on a journey through traditional folk sounds to murkier Americana waters and back again.

Heart on Fire repeats the refrain “it ain’t plain sailing, it ain’t half bad” which feels like a dig at this year – either way it sticks with me.

Pitter Patter is a slow and sweet reflective tune, followed straight up with upbeat earworm tune A Little Time.

Hope feels like a grown up offering to Alanis Morissette’s Ironic, and the repeated chorus has my mind creating alternative lyrics as the song progresses that linger with me for the day.

My Old Friend is my personal favourite on this record – I love the change of pace and vocals and poignant lyric.

Light After The Dark is a great tune and is well suited as the title track to this wonderful album, and Things Don’t Always Go to Plan is a beautiful way to end things.

TeMatera Smith from AAA Records apparently encouraged the band to experiment during the recording process, which they clearly took to heart. Bouncing between Micheal Young’s home studio and RedRoom studio the band racked up months of recording time, including one month entirely dedicated to Pascal Roggen’s strings alone.

Beautiful and discordant strings that carry the album to great heights.

“We wanted to make something eclectic, distinctive, and we wanted to surprise people with this album. Just like our live shows, we want people to feel joy with us and have those deep moments to reflect on things.”

Mission accomplished!

Albi & the Wolves have just wrapped up their Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch Light After The Dark tour that I wish I could have gone to – these guys are a magic live act – and have recently been announced in the long-awaited Auckland Folk Festival 2024 line-up!

Roll on January, I can’t wait, and hope to see you there… in the meantime – go buy their album!!!