by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
We’ve probably said it before but the best albums in the world are often the ones that don’t always you hit immediately, but leave you wanting to keep listening, unpacking, and contextualizing. Nightshift’s brilliant sophomore album Zöe can fit that mold, an album that is instantly likable but quickly becomes lovable upon repeat listens. There’s a casual psychedelic charm to their post-punk, one that allows a delightfully seasick feeling in the general wonkiness of the songs that’s balanced with memorable repetition and unlikely melodies. The Glasgow based band keep things fairly minimal, using looping riffs and open space to create atmosphere, but there’s a radiant dynamic to their songwriting that keeps things eternally interesting even in a hypnotic state.
One of the album’s highlights comes in the form of “Outta Space,” a track that drifts away from their core sound into something spacier, loungier, and more cosmic. It’s a perfect moment within the album’s framework, an early divergence that shows the band’s range in full disorienting beauty. We wrote about the song upon the record’s release call saying it “grooves and drifts out of time from their usual sharp focus. This one feels formless, a cloud of lush harmonies and a crackling framework that’s steeped in jazzy touches with a French-pop sort of malaise, as hypnotic as it is mysterious.” There’s an acidic lounge swagger to “Outta Space,” bolstered by the calming reminder of “there’s no air in outer space.” The video captures a great collection of ducks, flamingos, and wild birds as viewed on TV by a German Shepherd who seems just as stoned and relaxed as the rest of us within the song’s grasp.