Midnight oil has been burning at Potterne’s Badger Set studio as Devizes’ most impressive and talked about upcoming band, Burn The Midnight Oil takes it to a whole other level with a new single, Slow Burn, and it’s out tomorrow…..
In a relatively short time Burn the Midnight Oil has become an unmissable live show, and last year’s trip to the studio for the three-track EP Werewolf was blossoming with promise of a developing band heading in the right direction.
Whilst Slow Burn retains the swagger of a gunslinger at dawn, as does the previous songs, it also feels to me like the checkpoint to something far greater. Rootsy Americania with gypsy undertones and sombre leitmotifs being their guise, this one doesn’t waiver in poignant wording and powerful delivery, yet it captures something more carefree, wild and commercially viable in its midst too; a punch, a hook, and a sinker.
There’s an enchanting string intro, and it builds to a danceable peak; all the elements are combined here, it requires and thoroughly deserves radio play. In good time, I foresee and hope this tune being the one fans will wait an entire set in anticipation for, and will sing back to them. It’s Florence and the Machine sitting on a toadstool wishing they were more like Fleetwood Mac, it’s girl power Dire Straits melodic, it’s Springteen’s wild romantic gesture calling across a stadium.
In subject we see a turn away from the often dejected and tortured feminine soul of past songs, and a pragmatic idealism more faithful to the sanguinity of relationships developing.
If pop demands a song about the gifts of taking romance slowly should be a ballad, this runs more fiery than Niall Horan’s Slow Hands, and far less saccharine than Janet Jackson’s Let’s Wait Awhile.
Then, if we ask for upbeat, of course, we have one hit wonder Jermaine Stewart not wanting to take his clothes off to consider! Thankfully we’re heading far more subtly here; why does this theme have to be cringeworthy or so overly sentimental when it’s a perfectly viable concept?! Slow Burn, I think addresses this, and exhausts with a genuine angle through personal reflection. That’s what it does for me, it’s tender-hearted legitimately, and the chorus blows the cobwebs off any concerns the ideal might be wrong.
What else do you need to know about this song? It’s solid, out tomorrow, for Bandcamp Friday, pre-save it now HERE, and you’ll hopefully see where I’m coming from!
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