Like Ex-, The Red Eyes are one of Scotland’s prime purveyors of melodic punk influenced by the first wave of 1978/77 punk bands. Alan Bishop and Co. have been a fixture on the Scottish punk scene for what must be coming up on thirty years, with five albums under their belt from their debut Up to Our Eyes In It through to 2022’s Falling Through the Cracks. My own introduction to the band came after a friend raved about them having seen them support 999 in Glasgow, and lent me their first two CDs, the aforementioned Up to Or Eyes In It and On Prescription, and since then I’ve seen the band in a variety of venues across Glasgow, never failing to put on anything less than an outstanding performance, the driving rhythms of the bands punk roots shining through and giving a platform to Alan’s now familiar vocals delivering his stories through song.
After Hours collects songs from across the band’s back catalogue and has Alan performing them in stripped down acoustic versions with Alex King on acoustic guitar and additional vocals and Gordon McNeil providing piano. Someone much smarter than me once pointed out that the sign of a great song is it’s ability to stand on its own and engage the listener, stripped of any extra layers and gilding or additional touches in production, just the vocals with minimal instrumentation. The singer and their song laid bare.
And as such, After Hours does just that. If anyone reading this knows the songs of The Red Eyes they’ll know just how much spirit and emotion Alan packs into the songs of The Red Eyes, some of it is on a very personal level, but it also shines through when telling stories of others like the story of the Miami Show Band on When the a Last Note Died and of Traci Lords on Norah Louise Kuzma, which is perhaps even more powerful in its acoustic form despite the ruthless energy displayed in the full electric version.
The songs fairly pack a punch and definitely hit you in the feels, whether that means filling you with a sense of happiness and invincibility, or more often than not with the songs on this album many of which all have a sense of melancholy… The Grass is Always Greener, (It’s Over) Before It Even Began, All Dressed Up (Nowhere to Go), Last Orders… touching a raw nerve and creating a feeling of vulnerability. On After Hours, all that emotion is channelled through the power of the songwriting, where the full electric versions of the songs may be packed with bombast through the layers of instrumentation and production, the energy here is channelled through the vocal delivery and intensity or sensitivity of how the acoustic guitars are played. And on the songs which were already touching in their earnest delivery, in particular here on songs like Last Orders, Man and Boy & No More Tears for Daddy, those sentiments really come to the fore, the raw, stripped back versions playing to the songs strengths in the often heart-wrenching storytelling, souls open to the world.
A worthy addition to a top quality catalogue of albums from The Red Eyes.