Overnight is an experiment with the minimalism rock was once synonymous with. Heat, a Montreal based rock band, has made their effort at bringing it back.
With only nine tracks on the album, which together make up 36 minutes of music, Heat has created a trimmed vision of what they want to be and more importantly what they are. Within moments, each song from Overnight will remind the listener of the synth classics of the ‘80s, only to then perfectly demonstrate the changes indie rock has brought in a post-‘90s world. It feels like the album from 20 years back. Or was it only three?
The vocals on Overnight are not smooth. They blatantly deny the clean sound most 21 st century musicians have gone for. Heat uses this to their advantage on songs like “Lush” and “City Limits”, where the rough vocals seem to only add to the character. Heat makes a good effort to make it sound like they’re working for their songs. Overnight, despite its shorter song list, feels like it took a real effort to forge.
Perhaps the best feature on this album is the workhouse guitar and bass work. It’s not a talent show of strange twists and tricks, but rather a collection of well-played essentials. This is the backbone that this album, and any other rock album for that matter, needs to succeed. These set skills are best shown in, “Sometimes” and once again, “City Limits”, which could easily win best song off the album.
This is not to say that the album is perfect, that there’s nothing for Heat to work on. Overnight is the start of something, something that could grow into that irresistible album audiences are always searching for.
Heat’s Overnight is fun and compact; a classic feel in a new shell. Whether it’s the subtle hype of “Cold Hard Morning Light” or the somber jam of “Rose De Lima”, Overnight is a diverse showing of musical force that promises more. A young band with a mixed bag of tools to work with, Heat far from fails to show people that they have something to bring to the table. Something that brings both fun and change in an industry that doesn’t always put the two together.
