Midnight Swim deliver a slow-burning self-titled debut album

Manchester band Midnight Swim have released their self-titled debut album. The record follows 2023's 'Into The Night' EP, which gathered together the group's scattered singles, and serves as the first full statement of the sound they have been shaping since.

The band themselves reach for the tag 'alt-pop', but the album carries the weight of a rock record, with a lineage running through Anberlin, Kids In Glass Houses and You Me At Six. Its members come from a range of local bands, and that mix of backgrounds shows up in the variety of influences pulled into the songs.

The interwoven guitars of Danny Heaton and Matt Lunn give the album its rough, crinkly texture, driving riffs on 'Tease' and 'Don't Want To Talk About It' and pushing tracks like 'Play It Cool' forward. Matty Ashton's bass takes centre stage on 'Push Back', built around a big, funky line, while 'Sinners' and 'Do You Want To Get Away' lean further into alt-rock.

Vocalist Jack Valentine moves between a forced, chunky delivery and passages where he relaxes and sighs out syllables, creating contrast across the record. He also works as a storyteller on 'Fade' and the softer stretches of 'Bend & Break'. Elsewhere, the softened guitar effects on 'In The Rain, By The Car' evoke actual rainfall, and 'Like You Love To' gives the band room to stretch out.

The second half slows down, with songs such as 'This Is The Last Song I'll Write About You' pulling towards power balladry. Taken as a whole, the debut establishes the band's identity, offers catchy singles and shifts energy from track to track, landing as a slow-burning rock record with hidden depths.