Album Review: Crash Midnight’s Lost in the City
Crash Midnight, is not just another (indie) band outta Boston and has recently released their first album, Lost in the City. Let me tell you, it will blow your mind. Their stated mission was to write, play and perform kick-ass rock and roll in the style of some of the arena greats such as Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue, etc. Mission accomplished and then some!
Crash Midnight is Shaun Soho (lead vocals), Bo (bass), Alex Donaldson (lead guitar), Steve Burchell (rhythm guitar) and Chris Bishop (drums). Lost in the City comes screaming out of the gate with the immediately likeable and head banging anthem “151”. As an aside, this is my favorite track on the CD. This song grabs you in a stranglehold and doesn’t let go! Soho has a very distinctive voice and it is showcased in this opening anthem.
Soho goes on to purr, growl and seduce his way through the rest of the CD inviting you along for the ride. He is accompanied with masterful guitar licks built on a solid rhythm foundation that doesn’t know the meaning of ‘keep it down’. These guys know their instruments and their musicianship makes listening to this CD a joy. I’m not sure who contributes the harmonica to mix, but it is welcome and meshes well with the rest of the instrumentation providing a fun counterpoint to the guitar work.
The band slows it down a bit mid-CD for the ballad “Somewhere Yesterday” and still holds everything together without missing a beat. Soho’s vocals here are melodic and the backing guitars weave a complex tapestry of sound around the lyrics. The CD then blazes through a few more good-time party songs that will keep you dancing in your seat even as the last few notes of “Made for the Money” fade out and you restart the music from the beginning!
This is the kind of music that’s been missing for the last few (many?) years and I can’t recommend this band and this CD enough. Rock and roll is supposed to be both hard-driving (hard-drinking?) and fun. Thank you so much Crash Midnight for bringing this kind of rock back into the spotlight. Can’t wait until you swing through Chicago.
Lost in the City is available on iTunes and Amazon. You can follow the band and the boys on social media here:
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