On the EP follow-up to their 2021 release Last Birthday, Toronto quartet Valley reveals that that album was actually missing its title track. Its namesake song, “Last Birthday,” leads off The After Party with another stellar showcase of what this group does so well: craft pristine pop that grapples with messy emotions—in this case, a breezy yacht-rockin’ ode to that BFF you secretly wish was more than just a friend. (“I’ll be with you/If your last name changed,” Rob Laska sings, “even if you don’t reciprocate.”) True to its hangover-inducing title, The After Party is rounded out by a pair of comedown tracks—the heart-rending acoustic hymn “7 Stories” and the cheekily self-referential woe-is-me piano ballad “Paper Cup (sorry for myself)”—that prove this normally uptempo crew can still pack quite a punch even with their gentlest gestures.