Song to Get You Through the Week: Michael Kane & the Morning Afters rock out with 'Tear This World Apart'

Worcester rockers Michael Kane & the Morning Afters have been tearing their way through a classic roots-rock sound lately, attacking it with a punk rock fervor, yes, but also really interrogating the music, looking for that spark that makes it magical. They did it not long ago with the single “Carol Kaye,” and now they're doing it again with “Tear This World Apart.” While these are two very different songs, they both eye rock 'n' roll's exuberance from an older point of view, which lends both songs a sort of emotional depth that seems to belie their classic sounds.

“I’ll begin with a sad song,” sings Kane, after a slow, moody and profanity-laden opening. “With my radio dial glowing on my bedroom wall/When I was young I’d hear that screaming/Late at night/And wonder what the other kids/Are seeing in the other side.” This is a familiar origin story for any rock lover, from Paul Simon's “Late in the Evening” to “Midnight Radio” from “Hedwig & the Angry Inch”: An ephemeral sound in the night that changes everything. It's familiar because a lot of us have lived it, and it still pulls at that same heartstring.

But where Kane and company pivot is in perspective. Without ever overtly stating it, Kane seems to be mulling on something that's been lost in rock 'n' roll: “An' all the older ones as we tear this world apart,” he sings, “And all those other ones/Are just the same old songs about/Breaking each other’s hearts/And all the older ones, we tear this world apart.”

They don't build 'em like they used to? If it's too loud, you're too young? Whatever the intention there, “Tear This World Apart” is, to borrow a phrase, a straight-up banger. The song manages to strike a balance between a lean, back-to-basics melody and a rich, full sound. In addition to Kane's guitar and gravelly, soulful vocals, the song also features band regulars Franklin Siplas on electric guitar, Timmy Weagle on bass, Jeff Hoey on drums and Joe Ferraro on piano and keyboards, as well as lead guitar from guest James Lynch, guitar by Roger Lavallee and harmonies and background vocals by Helen Sheldon. If that sounds like a lot of guitar, you'd be right, but somehow it all feels very organic, and it plays a nice counterpoint to Ferraro's bright piano rolls, which bring out the song's vintage stylings.

Ultimately, this is an extremely catchy song with an excellent sense of groove, but what makes it particularly compelling is that there's something ephemeral in it that really feels like what it was like to discover rock 'n' roll for the first time, when it was young and dangerous and alive, before it became too familiar and self-important … when it really felt like a handful of instruments could tear the world apart. Who knows? Maybe they still can.