So Much for the Afterglow by Everclear

So Much for the Afterglow, Everclear's third album, landed on Capitol on October 7, 1997, and it's the sound of a scruffy alternative rock band cleaning up for company without losing its nerve. Art Alexakis co-produced with Neal Avron, and together they swapped a lot of the band's old punk and grunge grit for shiny, hook-first power pop, stacking up the choruses and letting the melodies do the fighting.

It works because the songs are built to hit hard on the first listen. "Everything to Everyone" bounces and snarls at once, "I Will Buy You a New Life" rides a big, open-hearted chorus, and "Father of Mine" digs its heels in with a stubborn, driving riff. Those three went into heavy rotation on MTV's Total Request Live, and that pushed Everclear out of the alternative ghetto and into the mainstream. "One Hit Wonder" and the title track were singles too. There's even a Grammy nod in the mix: "El Distorto de Melodica" got the band a Best Rock Instrumental nomination, the only one they've had.

The album came in at number 33 on the Billboard 200, selling 34,000 copies its first week, and then just refused to leave, hanging around the chart for 88 weeks. It went double platinum in 1998 and by July 2004 had sold 2.2 million copies in the US, making it the band's biggest seller. Next came Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How to Smile.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.