Decemberunderground
AFI make darkness surprisingly easy to dance to on Decemberunderground. The guitars remain important, but bass lines, electronic rhythms and bright vocal hooks give the record a lighter movement than its imagery suggests. The best songs make that tension feel deliberate and enjoyable.
Prelude 12/21 announces a theatrical setting before Kill Caustic brings a much harsher attack. The contrast is abrupt enough to make the album's range clear. AFI have not removed their aggressive side, although they are willing to place it beside music with a very different kind of physical appeal.
Miss Murder is the obvious success. Its bass-driven bounce and group responses give the song an immediate shape, while Davey Havok moves between a controlled delivery and a rougher burst. The arrangement is compact enough to make each change count. The song does not need a complicated structure when its central rhythm has so much character.
Summer Shudder offers a fuller, more open chorus, and Love Like Winter puts the electronic textures further forward. The latter's restrained movement suits Havok's voice especially well. He can suggest distance and unease without making every phrase into a large declaration. 37mm develops that new-wave interest with another effective shift in colour.
The consistency of the midtempo material is also a limitation. Several songs approach their choruses with similar melodic shapes and emotional weight, so their differences become less clear across a full listen. The imagery does not always help distinguish them. There are passages where the atmosphere seems settled before the songwriting has found an equally strong idea.
Affliction restores some welcome bite, while Endlessly, She Said supplies a more expansive ending. The record is most persuasive when it allows those different impulses to retain their character. Decemberunderground has uneven stretches, but its stronger hooks show AFI finding a convincing place for pop pleasure inside their darker sound. That pleasure is a substantial part of the album's identity, and often its main source of energy.
