Everclear released So Much for the Afterglow on October 7, 1997, through Capitol Records. Their third studio album followed the breakthrough of Sparkle and Fade, with “Father of Mine,” “Everything to Everyone” and “I Will Buy You a New Life” extending the band’s run of singles. Getting there required Art Alexakis to reconsider a record he had already recorded and mixed.
The original plan had a different name, Pure White Evil, and a sharper division between heavy and gentle material. Alexakis wanted to expand what Everclear could do without losing the band’s identity. “I never wanted a better sounding Sparkle and Fade,” he told Artist Waves in 2017. But when he played the early version for his Capitol A&R representative, the response was discouraging: it was a good record, but he was capable of making something better. Alexakis took the criticism hard, then began removing songs, writing replacements and reconsidering the arrangements.
That meant listening for what each song needed, down to the first few seconds. In a 2017 interview with SPIN, Alexakis recalled staying in New York after the disappointing response, walking around the city and filling two notebooks with revisions. At a diner counter, he would consider details such as a bell-like opening for “I Will Buy You a New Life.” For “Everything to Everyone,” he experimented with a friend’s Wurlitzer, effects and layered intervals until he found its distinctive introduction.
Those decisions also served a more deliberate approach to storytelling. Alexakis told SPIN that “Father of Mine,” “I Will Buy You a New Life” and “Why I Don’t Believe in God” were among the record’s personal songs. The last concerned his mother. The additional studio detail surrounded writing rooted in family relationships rather than replacing it.
By spring 1997, the record had its final title. Looking back in a 2023 Guitar World interview, Alexakis described rewriting material and remixing the album with Andy Wallace after becoming dissatisfied with the January version. He considered the result tighter and a better representation of the band. The difficult process also changed how he regarded the finished work. “I think that record is my masterpiece,” he told the magazine, describing its success as validation after doubts that Everclear could follow Sparkle and Fade.
The opening track made that ambition audible before its guitars arrived. In Willamette Week’s 2017 oral history, drummer Greg Eklund and co-producer Neal Avron recalled Alexakis requesting a Beach Boys-style vocal introduction, then leaving them to work out the arrangement. Avron wrote the parts and taught them individually to Eklund and bassist Craig Montoya. When Alexakis returned, he added more vocals to what they had recorded.
Elsewhere, the sessions allowed a different kind of construction. Lars Fox used Pro Tools to cut up a band jam for “El Distorto de Melodica,” assembling sections with Alexakis from the recorded material. The same album that depended on closely observed stories also made room for an instrumental built through editing and experimentation. That track earned Everclear a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
