LA synthwave duo The Midnight released their fifth album last Friday, and although it may not be immediately recognizable as such, Syndicate is also their heaviest project yet in a thematic sense. Classifying these 17 new tracks as “apocalypse pop,” the inherent brightness of their neon-lit take on synthpop becomes dampened the more one tunes into its wavelength. “This is our record about loss, humility, and transcendence written in a season of desperation, between cancer treatments, in the shadow of heartbreak,” the band’s Tyler Lyle shared upon the record’s release. “Time is short, but it’s long enough if we know what to do with it.”
With the duo’s UK/European tour currently unfolding, we had Lyle and Tim McEwan record an episode of FLOOD FM’s “Hacked” for us, wherein the single hour of music they programmed signifies a depth of influence in both genre and time period: Bruce Springsteen and Talking Heads land alongside Justin Bieber and the titular song from Ryan Coogler’s spring box office hit Sinners. Check out the episode every day this week (October 6 – 10) at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 10 p.m. PT only on FLOOD FM.
