The new single from Jack Broadbent is a fabulously grooving, bluesy song that makes you want to move. As a young musician, Broadbent started out playing the drums and that feel for rhythm certainly informs his dramatic, hard-edged guitar-playing style. Once described by the Montreux Jazz Festival as, “The new master of the slide guitar,” Broadbent’s playing is immediately engaging. However, his vocal performance is equally impressive, full of story-telling character and grit. Above all, ‘Midnight Radio’ displays Broadbent’s gift for terrific song-writing. The brilliantly-produced video, filmed and directed by Pat Gougeon, is a stylish, cinematic throwback to the Hollywood film noir of the 1940s and 1950s. The black and white visual feels perfectly in keeping with his music and Broadbent manages to look effortlessly cool on the stage.
The single is taken from forthcoming album ‘Ride’, due out on 8th April 2022. Broadbent’s music keeps evolving and changing and the new record was not the direction he originally intended to travel in. He explains: “I had to come off the road because of the Covid pandemic and was going to work on a solo project of acoustic material.” Instead, things took a different turn and, alongside Quebec-based drummer and co-producer Mark Gibson, “…we started playing some of the more rock ‘n’ roll stuff I had, and we couldn’t deny that there was a kind of vibe happening. So, I just went full steam ahead in that direction which brought the sound of this album into focus. We built on those grooves and ended up with the rock ‘n’ roll record I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. I really like the energy of this record. There seems to be an interesting dichotomy between what I write while I’m touring and what I write when I’m able to sit and think. What the album speaks to is that juxtaposition between the ride and the time spent parked up. It all ties into the journey of the artist.”
We can look forward to seeing Jack Broadbent back in the UK at the Black Deer Festival in June. Until then, tune into ‘Midnight Radio’ and be absorbed.
