The Midnight release new album Heroes,
Out Now (9 September)
The Midnight have released their new full-length studio album Heroes, out 9th September on Counter Records having sold out London’s Brixton Academy earlier this year.
Heroes represents a clear sonic shift for the songwriting duo of Tyler Lyle (raised by a music minister, cutting his teeth leading the choir in a small US town Methodist church) and Tim McEwan (his own father a drummer), who have expanded their lineup to include three live musicians – Lelia Broussard on bass, Royce Whittaker on guitar, and Justin Klunk on saxophone and synth – with both Broussard and Whittaker working alongside them on the new LP which was produced by McEwan and mixed by Ingmar Carlson (Tate McCrae, Disclosure, Carly Rae Jepsen).
The band recently toured across the UK and Ireland, selling out shows in Dublin, Glasgow as well as the aforementioned Brixton Academy. It marked their third ever London show, previously selling out the Roundhouse, with The Express insisting that they are “without question, one of the next iconic rock acts of the generation” in their glowing review.
Heroes is also the final in a trilogy of albums that started with 2018’s Kids, which reached #1 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Chart, and was followed in 2020 with Monsters. “For me, Kids is self-knowledge, Monsters is self-love, and then Heroes is empathy,” said Lyle. “I got into depth psychology and this idea of etiology, the way a human forms. “The world doesn’t get better but we do. We grow into ourselves. We grow into our voice.”
You can hear this shift in the new songs which are more visceral and warmer. For a band that started as a synth-heavy duo, they have come a long way, now creating fully-realised, arena-worthy songs. From ‘Heartbeat’, with its Van Halen-inspired synth leads, echoing drums, layered vocal chants and an explosive chorus; to the propulsive guitar-laden ‘Change Your Heart Or Die’, Heroes ushers in The Midnight’s next era with some of their biggest and boldest songs yet.
While taking a huge sonic step forward on Heroes, the band’s music still possesses the dramatic and nostalgic streak they’ve become known for since their 2014 debut in EP Days of Thunder. The new LP also reflects the confidence they’ve gained in their songwriting thanks in part due to their expanded live lineup. The band’s vivid sound is well-suited to full rock instrumentation, and the five-piece has cemented that in front of massive sold-out crowds this past year.
“The last two years have been so hard for so many people,” the band explain. “‘Heartbeat’ is a reminder that love and empathy is not a finite resource. There is love enough.”
# # #
To find out more about The Midnight, go to:
Website | Spotify | Apple Music | Instagram | TikTok |
Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Bandcamp | Soundcloud