The various members of York based Everything After Midnight have been busy bees during lockdown, getting their fingers into everything from setting up a record label collective, producing a glossy periodical magazine, creating a CD compilation album, music producing, doing their studies and hahaha, just loads of stuff. It rather makes my main lockdown achievement of observing every minute detail of our cats lives, appear a tad introverted.  

So, you might expect that actual making music thing might have taken a back seat perhaps? Not even a bit this is a band that lives and breathes music. With shiny but brutal new track, On Beauty, Everything After Midnight are stronger than ever. I saw the band live along with The Simones recently, and in a huge return to live music set, it was On Beauty that really made me pick up my ears.

The track itself has something of a brooding, burning majesty, along the lines of anything that Wolf Alice or YONAKA might muster. There’s some lovely swirly hard guitars, both soft and strong vocals from lead singer Stephanie, and a full on overall sound. Long time collaborator Tom Gulliver produced the track and there’s a great synergy between the slightly stripped back raw immediate feel the song needs, together with some more dreamy and swirly overdubs, which give the song a story tellers space. The song has a highly attractive intensity, and is a builder.    

I’m pleased that the band have retained previous recording Again on their Spotify page, as it both compliments that strong sassy rock feel, and also reminds us how far along the band have moved in terms of complexity and style. I’m sure there’s more in the pipeline with Everything After Midnight; and it’s gonna be well worth looking out for.

Chris R

* images have been taken from the band’s social media