Album Review: The Middlenight Men - “Issue 1”

 

The Middlenight Men are the brainchild of guitarist Nick Hughes, latterly of New Device, the Yo-Yo's, the Role Models and Duncan Reid & The Big Heads and also feature the talents of Andy Brook (ex-Shush and currently of Rich Ragany & The Digressions as well as being a top producer in his own right), Status Quo drummer Leon Cave and Terrorvision keyboardist Milly Evans. As you can see, this is a band with a pretty impressive musical resume and the big question is - can they translate that experience into a great album? Answer, I'm quite happy to say, is a comprehensive yes.

Issue 1 starts off as it means to go on with a killer one-two of former singles - Rat Star is a prime slice of fired-up pop-punk which recalls 1977 era Ash before the Ian Hunter style glam swagger of B.A. Baby takes things off in a completely different direction but does so in great style with honking horns and some great Ginger Wildheart-style wordplay on the lyrics. The standards don't slip from thereon out either - You (Getting Over) and We All Need Help Before Tomorrow sounds like they were beamed in from some weird parallel universe where Blink 182 instead of being cringeworthy frat-boys were actually...y'know...good while the gleefully nerdy ode to strong female superheroes Heroine Heights (complete with a cheeky nod to the Batman theme tune) sees the group's Wildhearts influence well and truly coming to the fore.

Prison Of Love reminds me of the excellent Rossall album last year with its pounding glam rock drums and horns but taking the formula into a new and exciting 21st century direction and ExtroIntro is an Electric Angels style power ballad that manages to be both surprisingly tender and pack a punch all at once. The six minute They'll Be The Ones sounds like the Buzzcocks covering Andrew WK back when he was good with an Everlone style guitar break thrown in there as well and is a definite highlight which just leaves the rocket-fuelled pop-punk of Budapest Brawler and the Quireboys-meets-Queen bar room blues of Sleep to guide us home in style.

I was really impressed by this album - it's got a good amount of variety but is packed with enough killer tunes (and some great crisp production courtesy of Brook and Dave Draper who's also produced the Wildhearts and Ryan Hamilton among countless others) to make it something that really does stick in your mind and you'll be cueing up for repeated listens. I think we might just have found our early frontrunner for the 2021 album of the year here.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

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