The Evan Whitton Blog: After Hours

Night Drive - Position II - The Singles, Reviewed Night Drive are a duo that only came to my attention fairly recently. While trying to put together a playlist for my Youtube series ‘The Not-So-Forensic Records Society’, one of their tracks showed up in the recommendations, and after listening I was instantly hooked. They operate within the fairly popular retro avenue of synthwave, but there’s much more than pointless nostalgia at play here, as they offer up moody, nocturnal washes of bass and synthesisers over danceable beats, supplemented by a dramatic sometimes downtrodden, highly catchy vocal presence. But since their debut album in 2017, aside from a few standalone singles, it’s been a little quiet on the musical front. Now though, they’ve re-emerged as a trio, with a brand new EP: a follow up to their debut release called ‘Position II’, coming out on August 4th. So, let’s get stuck into these singles. Summerwaves Now this is the Night Drive we all know and love. Starting out with...

Post Malone -  Austin - The Singles, Reviewed Post Malone is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in modern popular music. After bursting onto the rap scene with his 2016 ‘White Iverson’ single, and later his 2017 album ‘Stoney’, he quickly gained an audience with his unique mix of styles, combining elements of pop-rap with flourishes of country guitar, alongside heartbroken and braggadocious lyrics, but still with an ear and indeed voice for an irresistible pop hook. He went onto develop this further with what many, including myself, may consider to be his best album: ‘beerbongs and bentleys’ in 2018. It wasn’t a perfect record by any means, but showed his pre-established skills amplified to very high levels indeed, with a fair few hit singles along with it. Following that though, while I enjoyed a few tracks from 2019’s ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, there were also a fair few that just didn’t interest me, a problem that worsened with ‘12 Carat Toothache’ two years later. Now though, it...