Still my favorite among all the artists out there who identify as part of the whole "synthwave" genre, dynamic duo The Midnight made a storm last year with the fabulous Endless Summer, an album that felt very much of the late 80's but somehow very out of time as well. I loved that one, but I think this EP might be in a class of its own altogether. This one throws out ear hooks like Jack Dempsey with Shiva arms. Carrying a saxophone. There's a lot of saxophone.

Tyler Lyle, being the vocalist and primary melody maker here, remains an intriguing element that elevates the music above most of The Midnight's peers. He's not a typical 80's music sounding frontman. He's got a very plaintive, almost Southern Gothic sensibility to his delivery. Like someone from 2000's alt-country scene suddenly transplanted into the lead singer's position of a Tears For Fears cover band who might've shown up as the opener in Lost Boys. His closest cousin (in a sense) might be Bruce Hornsby...but Hornsby never did sleek, at times nightmarishly lyrical EDM-as-it-might-have-been-in-1989.

There's only seven tracks here, but all of them work very well. My favorites would be the sinuous opener 'Shadows', the almost-AOR of 'River Of Darkness' and the vibrant Nikki Flores duet of 'Light Years', the last of which would have been perfect on the Stranger Things 2 soundtrack and has a killer melodic progression.

All in all, this album was pure gold and it almost makes you want to go back to the 80's....almost.