Album Review: Middle Children – Earth Angel

Middle Children released their debut album, Earth Angel, on the 3rd March 2017 via Lets Pretend Records, the band is the newest project from Purple 7 and Hot New Mexicans songwriter Patrick Jennings. The album features ten reclusive pop songs that are birthed from deep down in his basement and then sculpted by his band, which includes old friends Ginger Alford and Matt Tobey of Good Luck. Earth Angel is now available on limited edition black vinyl and cassette formats from Lets Pretend Records.

The album opens with the subdued and restrained vibe of Baby Boom, after this melancholic start the album then opens itself up with the more energetic distorted number, Fish, that kicks the album into gear, from here on in it’s an unashamedly lo-fi canter through their idiosyncratic basement sound. But that’s not the end of the story, the album’s stand out track, Shipwrecked, is a bright and bouncy slice of lo-fi garage influenced fuzz that’s followed by the insistent riff of Sister, these two tracks demonstrate that Middle Children are not solely mired in the wistful and disconsolate. Earth Angel is an album that defies categorisation, it has a sound that refuses to be pigeonholed, varying between melancholy downbeat numbers and upbeat fuzz, and pretty much everything in between.

Earth Angel bears the influence of The Libertines, and this album will appeal to fans of that band, and especially to those with a love of Peter Doherty‘s more restrained later solo releases, but whilst there is an obvious comparison, Earth Angel is an album that embraces indie, garage and lo-fi, and even a few discordantly punky touches, in it’s DNA. Whilst this album will not have a direct appeal to the majority of people, outside of those who are devotees of the band members former projects, I can guarantee that there will be something that will appeal to anyone who has a love for the outsiders and underdogs of the indie scene.

You can stream Earth Angel in full via Soundcloud here and order the album from Lets Pretend Records here

Middle Children‘s Facebook page can be found here