Middle Kids - Lost Friends

Rating:

‘Lost Friends’ is a cocktail of infectious indie-pop and alt-country that packs a punch.

What happens when you take a Stevie Nicks-inspired vocalist with an alt-country croon and soak their vocals in glorious indie-pop stripped straight from the burning suns of the Australian summer? Middle Kids happen, that’s what.

Coming a little over a year after their self-titled EP, Middle Kids’ full-length debut ‘Lost Friends’ is a cocktail of infectious indie-pop and alt-country that packs a punch, with harmony-heavy hook-laden choruses that linger long in your ears and wrap around your brain that act as the cherries on top.

Shining the limelight directly on vocalist Hannah Joy, ‘Lost Friends’ is a collection of carefully curated narratives exploring the day-to-day lives of optimists living in a pessimistic world, wrapped up in layers of jangly riffs that roll off the tongue like a perfectly-timed pun, their hooks hitting you with authority. Joy’s Stevie Nicks-tinged indie-meets-country croon is a delightful breath of fresh air in a genre as overflowing with the same sound as the internet is with trolls.

‘Lost Friends’ crux is its ability to bubble and build like a New Years’ Fireworks display, simmering softly as each song starts before exploding into arena-ready sing-alongs seconds later, ending in extravagant finales. Bookending the record are perhaps two of the more ambitious cuts, the alt-country jangle of opener ‘Bought It’ and the electro-fuzz of the post-disco ballad closer ‘So Long Farewell I’m Gone,’ which ultimately guide the record's pace to and fro between soft reflection and raucous explosiveness.

Joy’s wittily coy lyricism is driven across plains of indie-pop revivalism, alt-country Mountains and rolling hills of raucous distorting fuzzy riffs. Middle Kids’ hit you in the feels and make you dance with joy simultaneously, and it’s a pleasure to behold.

Alongside the likes of Tame Impala, Courtney Barnett, and The Temper Trap, with ‘Lost Friends’, Middle Kids join a pantheon of Australian exports who mess with formulaic indie-pop in wonderful colourful ways, leaving you singing along for hours. Jack Press