Hank Midnight

Subtle instrumentals and empathic vignettes exploring the lives of various characters make up this beautifully well-rounded concept album from low key songwriter, Hank Midnight.

Motel is the fourth album and second full-length from Brooklyn songsmith, Hank Midnight. The record is written as a series of short vignettes that hover around the two-minute mark depicting the various temporary inhabitants of a motel. The songs bring you briefly into a mood then lets it pass just as quickly, fading in and out of one another. At times it feels like you're a ghost floating unnoticed from room to room and other times, you inhabit the characters intimately. Midnight's voice is understated and soft like Elliott Smith without the existential tension that can make Smith a difficult listen at times. Though Midnight favours his acoustic, when he decides to pick up the electric his playing is inventive, albeit subtle.

The opener and first single, 'The Mirror' is driven by persistent guitars under a sleepy, bluesy guitar lead. The lyrics are Cohenesque, reflecting somewhat darkly on the current protagonist. The follow-up 'How We Want It' is a slick clavinet-led minimalist track with another cool bluesy lead. Of the tracks with lyrics, they break away the most from the acoustic singer-songwriter mold.

Heels On Glass is a beautiful instrumental segue built on a lightly fluttering harp-like keyboard line and soft swells. The tune has a peaceful transcendence to it, that calm contemplation of looking out a window on a rainy night. It is wistful but not sorrowful, warm yet not overjoyed. The piece brings to mind pensive movie scenes from movies like American Beauty or Lost in Translation. A scene for those in between times. Later on in the album, songs like 'The Action', 'TV Box/Static' and 'The Dream Parts 1 & 2 fill a similar role with shimmering layered guitars in place of keys. These interludes, brief as they may be, transform the album from merely a collection of soft-spoken, singer-songwriter ditties into a fully fleshed out concept album that ebbs and flows.

The end of the album takes on a somewhat gospel tone with the acapella 'For Clarity', the conciliatory 'Cigarette Smoke' and the finale, 'Exist, Connect'. The album closer weaves sonorous slide guitar amid the hustle bustle of street traffic, taking you back out into the world.

Motel is a brilliantly crafted concept album from a solid songwriter. Although the main focus of the album for most will be the ballads in which he sings, the interludes are where Midnight really sets himself apart from the others in the genre. He creates warm spaces for the imagination to run free. The album is an inspired piece from an artist on the rise.