专辑名称：Give Us The Moon
歌手名称：The Night Flight Orchestra
发行时间：2025-01-31
发行公司：Napalm Records Handels GmbH
专辑介绍：
As the youngest writer currently staffed at and embarrassing the great AMG lineage, I glean real pleasure at the irony of me reviewing The Night Flight Orchestra (NFO). I mean, NFO is basically “Hey the 80’s called, they want their music back” whereas I’m smack in the later part of “only 90’s kids remember this,” blessedly not part of the “skibidi” generation by a couple of years. Pimply little scamp though I might be, I ****ing love NFO, which just goes to show that all ages are vulnerable to the raw magnetism of that slick, sexy 80’s sound. Pumping synths, dancing guitars, bodacious vocals, and big n’ burly mustaches; that’s what I’ve been comin’ to NFO for since 2017’s Amber Galactic, and I’m happy to say that in Give Us The Moon, NFO gives more of exactly what I want, and what all of you damn well should want.
Anyone who’s heard NFO before already knows what to expect on Give Us The Moon, but allow me to break it down for any newbies who, having never heard NFO, have probably never felt joy a day in their life: NFO plays extremely fun rock n’ roll pulled straight from the 80’s, characterized by infectious energy, memorable choruses, and the killer vocals by Bjorn “Speed” Strid.” An arbitrary but fun trend I’ve noticed in determining the quality of an NFO album lies in how hard a respective album’s third song goes. In the past we’ve had iconic jams like Amber Galactic’s “Gemini,” Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough’s “Paralyzed,” and Aeromantic’s “Divinyls.” Give Us The Moon earns its place alongside these albums with the instant classic “Like The Beating of a Heart” (since I don’t count the scene-setting intro song). The synth intro bursts into a deliriously funky synth/guitar line, leading into a verse where the drums maintain a momentum that keeps your head nodding like clockwork. Then the chorus explodes with an unforgettable melody, the kind where you can’t help but try and sing along despite not knowing a damn word. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it leaves me with a stupid grin; it’s NFO, baby!
The entirety of Give Us The Moon basically feels like a smorgasbord of the many hats (or aviators, I guess) NFO wears with extreme style. You’ve got tracks that ooze with romantic camp (“Paloma,” “Runaways,” “Way to Spend the Night”), straightforward rock n’ rollers (“Stratus,” “Melbourne, May I?”), or songs that dial up the funk to reach critical funk (“A Paris Point of View,” “Miraculous”). The album’s first single, “Shooting Velvet,” is a particularly kickass tune with a lethally catchy chorus and a tasty guitar solo I wish was about four times as long. “Paloma” is an instant winner as well, with a dramatic escalation of big guitar chords and synths sounding like the climactic catharsis of that scene in the romance movie where they finally smooch. The consistently high quality of Give Us The Moon’s tracklist makes it exceptionally easy to just throw on without a second thought and before you know it an hour has passed.
Speaking of an hour passing, if I were to complain about anything in Give Us The Moon, it’s that it does feel just a little long. Even though there’s never really a point in Give Us The Moon where I feel compelled to skip, I do struggle to retain some tracks like “Miraculous” or “Cosmic Tides” even after several listens. Furthermore, I’m a little torn on Give Us The Moon’s closer, “Stewardess, Empress, Hot Mess (and the Captain of Pain).” In addition to it’s ultra tubular title, it’s a dynamic and adventurous track that unquestionably ends the album on a high note. But I find it lacks the staying power and hyper-catchy hooks that enamored me to practically any of NFO’s previous closing songs. But as basically anyone who’s reviewed NFO before me has expounded upon, NFO at their worst is still pretty damn good.
Give Us The Moon is everything I want from an NFO record, and was a blast of excitement after I was a little underwhelmed with Aeromantic II. Once Give Us The Moon is over, the only thing I’m thinking is a resounding “**** yeah, dude.” It’s the product of a band who has nailed their sound and songwriting down to an extremely sexy science and is bound to contain a couple of favorite tunes for any NFO fan out there. And if this is your first NFO album, I’m glad to be the one to deliver joy unto you for the first time.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
01 Final Call
02 Stratus
03 Shooting Velvet
04 Like The Beating Of A Heart
05 Melbourne, May I?
06 Miraculous
07 Paloma
08 Cosmic Tide
09 Give Us The Moon
10 A Paris Point Of View
11 Runaways
12 Way To Spend The Night
13 Stewardess, Empress, Hot Mess (And The Captain Of Pain)
在线试听：
https://music.163.com/#/album?id=249884750