Album review – Same Time Next Year by The Open Flames (2025) (Subjangle)
In a current alt. jangle pop musical landscape that seems infiltrated by eleventy-squillion bands that insist they must sound exactly like all things Sarah Records (as if the label were actually a band…) it is refreshing to hear an act that offers an aesthetic that revels in the darker, dank, more dulcet essence of what ultimately replaced the cloying, pretty, jangly indie pop in the hearts and minds of the 90s kids.
The Open Flames, consisting of ex-members of Harvey Danger, Sleepy Kitty,Say Yes Do Nothing, and Bound Stems deliver on the promise of an erstwhile indie supergroup, with their debut Same Time Next Year album that bases its musical nuances and credentials around shifts in tempo rather than any discernible reduction in the level of brilliance.
At their most dynamic and vital, the slack, stringed guitar gait of Pavement pulses through the Right Pill to act as the perfect foil for tight, agitated jangled riffs that are akin to The Feelies vibe to become accentuated in contrast. Such a dulcet expression is also present in the Eat Alone and the truly superlative standout track of UK Trains, which grab hold of the fuzz and whirr of the Guided By Voices vitality and never lets go in the process of making the sound their own.
Dave Eastman’s vocals take centre stage in tracks such as Falling Up and Not Never, which heave with claustrophobia courtesy of his Nick Cave-style rich baritone that is allowed to ‘just about’ pierce the core of the finely coiffured The Velvet Underground production that is perfectly blended by Duncan Thornley (Weird Weather, Flo Perlin, Double Geography).
When the tempo drops, Eastman’s songcraft and sense of melody flourish. Here the guitar-pop of Drop A Coin and My Birthday, which offer the less polished precision and incision of the Roddy Frame solo work and Aztec Camera, respectively. Meanwhile, Not Never welds the crunchy balladry of Dot Dash’s more sedentary moments to the earliest R.E.M EP’s.
Along with acts such as Jetstream Pony,No Museums, and Carriers,The Open Flames offer the perfect antidote to the legions of “pretty” acts that are flooding the jangle-pop and jangle-pop-adjacent airwaves at present. We can only hope that they can convince some of these acts to jump ship and venture into the perfection of similar murkier wasters.
Grab your copy of the limited edition digipak from Subjangle,here.
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