The Midnight

One Liner: More 80's redux schlock

Wikipedia Genre: Synthwave, futuresynth, electronic, chillwave
Home: L.A.?  Wikipedia says the singer is based in Atlanta and the producer/singer is in L.A.

Poster Position: 10
Both Weekends.  Saturday.

Thoughts: Wellp, I keep striking out on something new and awesome.  When I saw the pink square with a handprint on it as the avatar for this band on Spotify, I thought for a second that this band might have something to do with Midnight Oil, which had me excited.  But unfortunately, this is just another band fetishizing 80's pop music.  I don't understand what the deal is with that trend.  It is maybe kinda funny for a song, to be like, "oh yeah, that sweet saxophone and synth combo is super funny!"  But then it is the ninth song and you're still stuck with below-replacement-grade 80's music, and the fun ebbs quickly.  Also, we left behind the freaking 80's music for a reason!  This stuff was a fad that ran its time!  I blame Stranger Things.

Actually, according to an article I just found, this is the fault of The Weeknd and Dua Lipa.  The Weeknd's 2020 album, with that "Blinding Lights" track that became the biggest song of the year, re-energized this thing.  Miley Cyrus did "Prisoner."  Dua Lipa did "Physical."  This has become a thing.  So now these dudes join the other people on this poster, chasing the new trend and bastardizing an old sound to make their boring replications of the original stuff.

I'm sorry.  I'm being rude.  I hate bagging on artists who are on the poster, I really do.  They are out there making music and getting picked to be at a huge music festival, and I'm just dragging them down without any appreciable talent at all.  But at the same time, I expect that you are reading this because you want to know what this sounds like, and so I'll tell you that it sounds like old stuff you stopped listening to when Ronald Reagan was the President.  "Neon Medusa" steals some riffs from "Thriller" and Daft Punk.

This band is made up of Tyler Lyle (Atlanta) and Tim McEwan (Danish-born, but L.A. now).  McEwan's folks are actors and musicians in their own right, back home in Denmark.  Wikipedia claims that their inspiration for this entire schtick was the Drive soundtrack.  So that is who I have to blame!  They also collaborated with TimeCop1983, who has collaborated with fellow ACL 2022 artist Primo the Alien.  Maybe they'll join each other on stage at the Fest!  Can't wait!

And, now that I actually look at their discography, maybe it was these guys who the major stars copied!  It doesn't make me like it more, but they have been doing this since 2014 with the album Days of Thunder.  Since then, they've also released 2016's Endless Summer, 2017's Nocturnal, 2018's Kids, and 2020's Monsters (plus a few EPs in there).  That is a lot of output!  The top streamer is from the 2016 album, called "Sunset," with 22.5 million streams.

Makes me think of Starship - the synths and electric guitar solos.  I'll give you one more before I can blissfully escape this artists and hope that the next one will cleanse the 80's from my brain.  The newest single is "Change Your Heart or Die," with 619k streams.

That voice sounds like the guy from the Shins.  The tune sounds like something that would have backgrounded a bootleg copy of Double Dragon that you bought in a back alley.  Again, big fat nope for me, dawg.