The Midnight: Time Machines

Don’t say The Midnight didn’t warn you. After teasing fans on social media with ominous imagery, snippets of lush keyboard washes, and cryptic references to classic science fiction stories, the band that emerged over a decade ago out of Los Angeles returns with Syndicate, their fifth studio album (not even counting the three EPs released between) and their most ambitious and outward-looking work yet. Syndicate evolves The Midnight’s simultaneously retro and forward-looking sound while cementing the band’s status as perhaps the most musically and lyrically ambitious act to come out of the burgeoning synthwave scene.

With four singles already released from the 17-track album (‘Shadowverse,’ ‘Digital Dreams,’ ‘Chariot,’ and ‘Love is an Ocean,’) the listener can already get a sense of the wider canvas the band is painting with. ‘This is our ‘making peace with the apocalypse’ record,’ says singer and lyricist Tyler Lyle.