An Elliott Smith-inspired, soulful, and introspective chillout set of songs.
Not to be confused with a similarly named Swedish rock band, London’s Night Flight are now on their third album – and again, there’s no connection with the Rush album of the same name. ‘Cold Touch’, which opens the album, is carved directly out of the Elliott Smith playbook – containing, as it does, double-tracked vocals, minor chord changes and Beatle-esque melodic shifts. ‘Alimony’, which follows, doesn’t stray too far from this template, although there are echoes of the late 1980s band Jellyfish in its almost ELO-like full production.
There’s a shift in instrumental style on ‘Outside’ which adopts an early REM Pete Buck type guitar figure, overlaid with a nigh-falsetto soulful vocal – and there’s a welcome brass interlude too. ‘No pressure’, on the other hand, is punctuated with a beatbox rhythm and features a radio-friendly pop melody. There are flutes too – real or digital isn’t clear.
‘Forget you’, which marks the halfway point of the album, stays rooted in a similarly laid-back vein – swirling keys and bass – and more flutes – build up a layered AOR-type sound, ideal for late-night chilled listening. ‘Song upon the window’ harks back (instrumentally) to REM and the Paisley Underground, but with a much more conventional structure and melodic arrangement. ‘Awful mess’, however, takes the tangle of disappointment and depression and frames it in an almost-joyful, Sade-like (Sade Adu – not the Marquis) deep-soul take.
There’s greater positivity on ‘Lucy’, which remarks that “I’m gonna win you” – 12 string jangle adds to the sonic layering, and there are some interesting quiet/loud dynamic drop-out shifts. The ominously titled ‘The Hearse’, the penultimate track on the album, is an investigation into pessimism and follows a similar sonic profile to its predecessors in its layered wall of sound topped by a falsetto.
Album closer and title track ‘Exit stage left’ is a more pared back repetitive picked guitar arrangement with its “Band don’t want to play – anymore” mantra – it doesn’t leave things on a positive note either, with the listener made to reflect on the state of the singer and the band – literal or figurative? Either way, it’s a dark – even sinister – ending.
Night Flight’s “Exit Stage Left” is very much a mixed bag, therefore, not in terms of its musical and lyrical quality, but in terms of the emotional range it covers. It’s a late-night listen if ever there was one.
