The Sunday Paper People - ​Aftermath

The Sunday Paper People

​Aftermath
self-released; 2016

​3.2 out of 5

By Dan Weston

The Sunday Paper People is the brainchild of artist Cody Barcroft. He started writing songs in a “folk-punk/sadcore” type of way and The Sunday Paper People were born. He collaborated with drummer David Haley and bassist Steve Marris to release Aftermath.

The first thing that has to be mentioned is just how lo-fi this EP sounds. It sounds like they held up maybe one mic and pressed record. If there is one thing I hope they improve next time around it's the recording quality. It really held back the songs from the digital distortion to fluctuating dynamics. 

They open with “Alone.”  All i could really hear was someone tapping a beat on something that didn't seem to be a drum kit. I could barely hear the guitar at all which was strumming basic chords. Barcroft has a high pitched voice which luckily cut through the mix. 

The song-”When I’m Gone” is the highlight. It revolves around a slowly strummed guitar and what sounds like a recorder. His vocals sound good during the verse. The song runs into trouble around the 3:30 mark. The vocals are off key when he goes high, contain digital distortion and sounds like he got stabbed in the gut when he starts screaming.

“The Night” is a decently written song that is plagued by production issues while “Slow Suicide” has some fairly inspired moments. 

The band still has a long way to go if they want to be competitive with popular acts they are influenced by like The Mountain Goats and Guided by Voices. 

It would behoove them to either learn more about engineering or to try and find a way into a studio. There are free programs out there like Audacity which provide free, basic tools they can use to help their recordings. They should at the very least learn a little about mic placement, phase, digital distortion and balance, and that would improve their recording by at least twenty-five percent. 

Musically, there is some talent here. Although the songwriting was basic in a number of ways there was decent structure with ”When I’m Gone.”

Overall, I’d like to see them evolve and I have no doubt that will happen as they just started working together. Good luck. 

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