The After Party

On the EP follow-up to their 2021 release *Last Birthday*, Toronto quartet Valley reveals that that album was actually missing its title track. Its namesake song, “Last Birthday,” leads off *The After Party* with another stellar showcase of what this group does so well: craft pristine pop that grapples with messy emotions—in this case, a breezy yacht-rockin’ ode to that BFF you secretly wish was more than just a friend. (“I’ll be with you/If your last name changed,” Rob Laska sings, “even if you don’t reciprocate.”) True to its hangover-inducing title, *The After Party* is rounded out by a pair of comedown tracks—the heart-rending acoustic hymn “7 Stories” and the cheekily self-referential woe-is-me piano ballad “Paper Cup (sorry for myself)”—that prove this normally uptempo crew can still pack quite a punch even with their gentlest gestures.