“After The After Party” Is Knox’s Midwest Best Template
Following a highly successful multi-continental touring run for 2025’s Going, Going, Gone, pop-punk singer-songwriter Knox and his crew of Nashville-based collaborators quickly began cultivating another record. Preceded by lead singles “Go For Broke” and “Long Story Short,” his new album My Midwest Best is set for release on October 2nd. A world tour will not be far behind.
"After The After Party,” the latest high-octane single off the project, is out now. For it, Knox utilizes his tried-and-true multi-hook method that scored his breakout solo hits “Not The 1975” and “Sneakers,” ensuring that just a well-sung two-line pre-chorus could signal what is arguably the most immediate refrain and concept of MWB thus far: “After the after party/ Alone in my bed, me, myself, and you in my head / That’s when I know I’m not foolin’ anybody.”
Knox, a dedicated purveyor of fiction, sets the scene of a lonely walk home from the bar after closing out a tab of several liquid concoctions: “All I think about is your face, and your tattoos, and your old place, and your bedroom, and how I was wakin’ up with you.” There’s more than a slight sense of amusement in his tone here, as if he knows that, if he played his cards right, he could find himself in these circumstances once again at any point.
He’s revisiting the memories, and potentially digital evidence, of an old flame and looking to find refuge in “your ghost again.” Unable to render himself in this moment, he falls down an unadvisable rabbit hole, which he later divulges in the bridge: “Tomorrow I’ll wake up regrettin’ my words/ Knowin’ every sip made it worse.”
Generally speaking, each section of the tune is amplified by a host of shouty gang vocals, a Knox trademark, and added ad-libs meant to steadily increase its dynamic trajectory. This writer has long since learned to not assume any Knox and co. production choice is meant to satisfy any kind of metaphorical need, though, as it pertains to the accompanying spirit-forward music video for the song, the gradual vocal uptick here could surely act as either the similar woes of his fellow bar patrons or simply a plethora of swirling inebriated thoughts.
In a statement, Knox acknowledges that the vibrancy of the tune is to be expected elsewhere on My Midwest Best: “It is the tone setter for what the album is going to be. Big, anthemic & MOST IMPORTANTLY, meant to be seen live in person."
Listen to "After The After Party" below:
