Album Review: Midrift - ’Silhouette’
Packed full of youthful exuberance and sensational craftsmanship, Midrift’s debut album marks a sharp turn in the direction of success early on for the San Francisco three-piece.
After an array of viral singles, popularised for their coarse lyricism, serrated chord progressions and show-stopping drumming, Midrift have finally been given the opportunity to put pen to paper and produce a poignant and passionate ten-track debut album. ’Silhouette’ is a blend of their vicious, shoegaze-heavy tone and the bravery to venture outwards and create something fresh. This album effortlessly cements the young and hungry outfit as one that is here to push the boundaries of the fabric of the genre, they reside within. Seeing a band so young be filled with so much passion that is only emboldened by their blatant creative talent is something that rarely comes around, and this album only goes to show that in 5 years this will be one of those bands that you can have bragging rights about seeing in a crowded, sweaty venue when they were still adolescents. Despite their youth and relative inexperience compared to other bands in the genre, this has not been a roadblock, as they have already toured with mammoth bands like Basement and Movements, both of which have endlessly sung their praises.
The album starts with one of the initial singles, ‘Over Anything’, which feels like a natural evolution of their sound as they are very clearly influenced by the bands that came before them and have taken elements of decades of history and blended them into an explosive and vivacious track that exudes confidence while remaining extremely delicate. Its punchy and heavily effects-based intro riff pushes their chorus and flanger pedals to their absolute limits while ripping through sharp notes and creating an immediate whirlwind of chaos that swells and swells until the dam bursts, and they flow perfectly into the breakneck speed of the chorus. This momentum carries for the whole track and is executed perfectly with every note played. The remainder of the opening half of the album contains a well of differing stylings, bearing all and truly showing just how much this band is capable of. The pace drops as we enter the album’s title track, ’ Silhouette’, dropping to a more bare-bones notation and riff choice before again creating these gigantic choruses with blaring chord progressions and scorned vocals that are continually pulled to and fro by the brutal accuracy of the drumming. This tone remains for the first half of the album, with tracks like ‘Difference To’ and ‘All I Said’ switching between the low dulcet tones of the verses, relying on impressive vocalisations and beautifully curated note patterns to make up the mellow riffs and the brutal lawlessness of the choruses and bridges that create this beautiful, flowing dichotomy of sounds.
The second half of the album contains the bulk of the singles released for the project; this layering was designed perfectly and allows the listener to experience the scale of the bands songwriting talents before digging into the songs they may already be slightly more familiar with, before the singles is the track ‘Bouquet’, and this truly gut-wrenching, bare bones track is the bands most honest and reflective to date. Stripping back the chaos of the previous tracks, ‘Bouquet’ acts as the perfect moment of reflection at the album’s midpoint, before the second half of the album comes back in with a three-song run that sends you careening back into the pit and raring for more. The closing stretch of the album contains the aforementioned singles ‘Reaching for You’, ‘Tell Me Everything’, and ’Safe and Sound’. These three singles take the familiarity of the band’s viral singles and reworks every element, creating a polished and refined sound that displays their budding maturity and their creative ingenuity. Every single member of this band is on top form the entire time, the vocal performance, drumming and riff writing completely outshine previous tracks like ‘Twin Flames’, and with all the time in the world to improve, the prospect of just how brilliant this band might become is almost terrifying. These singles carry an intense weight with them, with each following a similar writing pattern yet still retaining originality in each track. The powerful choruses and frenzied musicianship are a true staple of not only these songs but the band as a whole, and tracks like ’Safe and Sound’ have truly perfected this sound. The album’s closing track, ‘If You Have to Go’, is a soothing and vast experience that creates a deep atmosphere and again allows a slight pause for reflection, letting the audience experience every ounce of passion poured into this ten-track run. For a song with so few lyrics, it speaks to the soul and brilliance of the project and the band at large, as the low build-up gives way to a baroscopic crescendo that crashes and burns as the album comes to a close. This final burst of brutality sees the album off perfectly and really sits with you in the small window of time before you end up playing the whole thing again.
This album feels truly monumental, and to see a band so young wield so much potential and raw talent gives me so much faith in the future of shoegaze. Given time and even more opportunity to harness the limitless skill that they possess, Midrift will become the name at the end of every shoe gaze greats list if they continue to produce such sentimental and tantalising material. ’Silhouette’ is the blaze of glory that the band needed to hit the ground running, and with a year of scheduled tours and prosperous adventures waiting to be actualised, they will certainly be a band worthy of close attention regardless of your taste or background.
Words by Josh Pook
