Middle Kids
Lost Friends
Release Date: May 4, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Domino
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Album Review: Lost Friends by Middle Kids
Very Good, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Middle Kids aren't massive fans of albums. I nterviewed by NME last month, bassist Tim Fitz revealed he rarely listens to a full LP, concluding: "If you make a whole album nowadays, then you've done a very good job." Full marks for Middle Kids, then, because 'Lost Friends' is a set of pile-driving anthems that demands your undivided attention. Based in Sydney, the group released their self-titled debut EP at the start of last year.
Based on rating 7/10
When you're the middle child, you're stuck in between the first-born and the "baby". The feeling of being left out starts to sink in, and you're role in the family starts to diminish. For Australian indie rock band that adopted the name Middle Kids, their music has a resembling sentiment--trying to find purpose and clarity of who you are, what you are now becoming.
Based on rating 7/10
When you're the middle child, you're stuck in between the first-born and the "baby". The feeling of being left out starts to sink in, and you're role in the family starts to diminish. For Australian indie rock band that adopted the name Middle Kids, their music has a resembling sentiment--trying to find purpose and clarity of who you are, what you are now becoming.
Based on rating 6.8/10
For a new band, Middle Kids come to the table with some ready-made talking points. Their lead singer, Hannah Joy, is a classically trained pianist who grew up singing church hymns. She recently married her multi-instrumentalist bandmate, Tim Fitz. Their drummer, Harry Day, studied jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Based on rating 6/10
Australian rock trio Middle Kids has serious promise to live up to. The two best songs on Its self-titled 2017 EP, "Edge of Town" and "Never Start," offered surprisingly idiosyncratic, energetic takes on alt-country, indie rock, and pop. These songs remain just as exciting in their appearances on the band's debut album Lost Friends, but their immediacy on the LP is, unfortunately, the result of some sameness among the newer songs.
Based on rating 3/5
Middle Kids might have only formed two years ago, but they’ve clearly not struggled in figuring out the key to writing killer pop hooks. Debut ‘Lost Friends’ is full of them, even suffixing them in last minute shifts, like on ‘Edge Of Town’, whose most immediate part comes when the trio strip everything away and rebuild to an almighty climax as Hannah Joy cries “Hey guys, I got something on my mind / Tick tock, could you take it for a while?” Opener ‘Bought It’ finds the frontwoman struggling with her pondering again. “Help me now, I got a lot of questions / And I can’t seem to get them out,” she sings before advising “Don’t act so embarrassed, we all do dumb things when we’re lonely.
Opinion: Very Good
Classically-trained trio Middle Kids have struck out with indie-pop guns blazing over the last year or so. Punchy singles 'Edge Of Town' and 'Mistake' have found favour all over the globe, including with err… Elton John, who's played them on his Beats 1 show. Riding high on such success, they might have delivered a potboiler, but their debut, 'Lost Kids', is a sharp, focussed affair shot through with rousing hooks.
'Lost Friends'
is available now