Having honed their atmospheric, '80s-inspired synth pop to a neon-tipped knife's edge, Los Angeles'
the Midnight shake things up with their fourth album, 2022's
Heroes. Much of this shaking has to do with the duo's transformation into a full band. Here, they augment their own synths and programming with addition of bassist
Lelia Broussard, guitarist Royce Whittaker, and saxophonist/keyboardist
Justin Klunk. Consequently,
Heroes is one of the group's warmest albums to date, with a sound that shimmers like the glint of an early morning L.A. city skyline. There's certainly a bigger sound to their work here, with more air and breathing room inside the arrangements of the expanded lineup. Still, the core of the album's sound comes from the pastel-tinged intimacy and creative spark between singer
Tyler Lyle and producer/instrumentalist
Tim McEwan. While still retaining the same icy sophistication of their previous work, cuts like "Change Your Heart or Die," "Heartbeat," and the yearning "Heart Worth Breaking," have a more relaxed vibe, evoking the classic work of bands like
Mr. Mister and even
Hold Out-era
Jackson Browne. Elsewhere, we get tracks like "A Place of Her Own" and "Souvenir," laid-back anthems that nicely straddle the
Giorgio Moroder-esque '80s new wave style of France's
Phoenix and the California adult-contemporary pop of
Dawes.
Heroes is the sound of
the Midnight maturing and letting their style develop. They are still driving their hyper-colored pop Ferrari through the alien soundscapes and city-pop atmospheres that initially inspired them, but the windows are rolled way down to let the air in. ~ Matt Collar