Get lost in the Nightlands – “Oak Island” album review

by Max Jones

During the alternative ‘90s, a lot of bands used the “wall of sound” method of recording, mostly to hide their instrumental deficiencies. Nightlands, the invention of multi-instrumentalist Dave Hartley, have no such deficiencies and instead, set out to include as many unique sounds as possible on their latest album, Oak Island.

This is clear from track number one, “Time And Place,” where the multilayered vocal tracking invites the listener into a lush soundscape populated with rollicking drums, synths, and other instruments Hartley might have invented in the studio. The result is a tone-setting opener that primes the audience for what is to come.

This includes a few hits and a few misses. The fourth track, “Nico,” is one of the latter, as it showcases what happens when this sound experiment goes wrong, with too much action distracting and detracting from the song itself. In the end though, it is still an “interesting” listen. “I Fell In Love With A Feeling,” on the other hand, is a perfect example of what can happen when everything goes right for Nightlands. The vocals combine with horns, on top of solid and steady rhythm guitar, to prove that in addition to indie quirkiness, Hartley can also pull off  a “catchy-as-hell-pop-tune”.

They are on the road starting in November, so look up when they arrive in your city to see if their forest of sound approach can translate when put in between four walls. In other words, take a night to get lost in the Nightlands.