REVIEW: Afterdrive - Dress To Drive
Somewhere between indie-rock, alt-pop, and a film soundtrack not yet made, you’ll find
AFTERDRIVE. The Ipswich-raised four-piece has been steadily making a name for themselves, from festival stages to hometown shows, while opening for major artists such as MAGGIE
LINDEMANN, and MCFLY. With BBC Radio 1 already taking notice of the band’s growing
momentum, Dress to Drive offers a clear insight into why.
Dress to Drive captures the moment of remembering the kind of relationship where
everything made you feel invincible, powered by late-night drives, stupid decisions and
falling too hard while convincing yourself it would all work out. This EP feels cinematic; it is not an EP you listen to, but one you can picture. Each track feels like another scene, another moment in a story that gradually pulls you in further. Fake License Plates opens the EP with the feeling of driving down the motorway with the windows down in the middle of summer. It’s carefree and nostalgic, but beneath the lyrics and chords is something more cinematic. It feels like the soundtrack to a film where the love interest is desperately running after the person they love. This track has an immediacy that pulls you into the world of Dress To Drive without needing explanation.
Then comes Jewellery, which draws you deeper into the EP’s world and lands in exactly the
right way. It immediately plays with contrast, introducing softer sections before throwing you
into distorted guitars and forceful drums. The different vocal tones work brilliantly alongside
this, creating unpredictable tension that deepens the EP’s central conflict and makes it
increasingly unstable and difficult to resolve. Neon View is an immediate standout from the EP. This track has something unique and incredibly scenic that makes it easy to get lost. The repeated lyrics throughout the song solidify its feel and tie into the ongoing story. It is the kind of song you can dance around your kitchen without a second thought, while still feeling completely swept up in the moment.
Afterdrive (Outro) brings the EP to a close with lyrics that make you want to scream them
until you have nothing left, and before the vocals can even begin, the track sets the scene: a
dial tone, keys in the ignition, people talking, and the unmistakable sound of a car speeding
away. By the time it finishes, the EP feels less like four individual songs and more like you’ve
watched something unfold.
That is what makes Dress To Drive work so well; the storytelling throughout is phenomenal,
but it never feels like the narrative gets in the way of the music. Each song had its own
identity, its own atmosphere, and its own little world, while contributing to something bigger.
And perhaps the biggest compliment of all? Once the EP ends, you immediately want to
start it again. It leaves you wanting more, and that urge to go straight back to the beginning
is exactly what a debut EP should achieve.
AFTERDRIVE have taken the sound they’ve been developing over the past few years and
turned it into something incredibly cohesive, cinematic, and unmistakably theirs. If this is the
beginning of the AFTERDRIVE story, it’s an excellent one.
Score: 8/10
Dress To Drive will be self released on 9th October 2026.
Words: Morgan Ashman
Photos: Afterdrive
Comments