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Bright as ..California.. sunshine, the first single “....Hollywood....” features an undeniable melody with tinges of '80s pop. Singer/ songwriter Ed Roland puts a bouncy energy to his sly lyrics that compare ..Tinsel.. ..Town.. to a naughty girl (or is it the other way around?): “Yeah, ..Hollywood../ You know I love you more than one man should/ Yeah, ....Hollywood..../ kiss me, kiss me good.”....

While “Hollywood” may strike listeners as the perfect top-down summer song, much of the rest of Afterwords captures Collective Soul at a time when Roland is writing from a hard-won, much more mature perspective, and his band mates are contributing from equally strong musical directions. ....

“The theme of this one is love.” Roland says of Afterwords. “It sounds corny saying that but we've been blessed with success and with that comes the confidence to do things. I always liked writing positive songs and although a whole love record is different for me it's an important step.”....

Another first for Roland is the evocative, mid-tempo story song, “Georgia Girl” — it's the only tune he's ever written where the lyrics came before the melody. “I just sat down one day and wrote it. It's basically a true story about a wonderful girl who helped me through a hard time.  That may be the hardest kind of song for me to write — a story that people can follow. That's the greatness of someone like Springsteen. He can write you a story. I really wanted to challenge myself to do something like that.”....