Album Review: Kingswood - After Hours, Close To Dawn

In a recent interview, Kingswood vocalist/guitarist Alex Laska said they played sneaky tracks from their new album in between other songs at their recent listening party in Melbourne, and people weren't cottoning on to the fact that it was them. That illustrates just how radically different After Hours, Close To Dawn is.

In fact, it takes until track seven, Like Your Mother, for a facsimile of their traditional kick-arse blues rock sound to make a re-appearance, and even then it's more of a honky-tonk version of it. Elsewhere, they are hitting balls to all parts of the musical park; single Golden is a smooth, laid-back ballad, Big City is country/bluegrass, Belle has a cruisy, breezy '60s/'70s west coast vibe to it, and there is an old school soulful pop/rock feel across much of the record. They even bring in some sweet and tasteful female vocals in the latter stages of the album.

And the beauty of it all is that the vast majority of it works a treat.

There is just one word of advice to remember if you are an old school fan listening to this album for the first time: open your mind about as wide as it can go before you put it on, and prepare for something very, very different.