Like Roses flip 2000s emo on its head with debut album 'After It Ends'

Like Roses have released their debut album, 'After It Ends'. The Bay Area pop-punk act arrives with serious backing: Sleeping With Sirens picked them as support for their next outing, and the New York Times described the band as proof that "the dream of emo is alive".

The record draws openly on the drama and longing of noughties emo, but rewrites the point of view. Instead of the familiar protagonist who can't work out why he was left, these songs belong to the person who walked away and knows exactly why. Opener 'Roses' sets the tone with Amy Schmalkuche's first question, while 'Nowhere', 'Swallow' and 'Buried' push the same idea forward with a we're-doing-blink-but-better energy.

Advance single 'Wrist' is the album's heaviest conversation piece, tackling relationship abuse without leaning on cliche, focusing instead on the moment someone recognises what a bad relationship did to them while still allowing warmth for the good parts. 'Light' handles the semi-acoustic duty, building to a crashing finale that balances the ferocity elsewhere on the tracklist.

Even though most of 'After It Ends' deals with loss and breakdown, bitterness isn't the point. On 'Happier', Schmalkuche sings "I hope one day you get everything you wanted", a line that captures the compassion running through the album, including towards the past selves caught up in the drama. It's a debut that reads as a grown-up answer to the lovelorn stereotypes of the bands that shaped it, and a strong starting point for whatever Like Roses do next.