(Indie, Shoegaze, New Wave) Midnight Faces - The Fire Is Gone - 2014, MP3, 320 kbps

To better understand what The Fire Is Gone, the second album by Los Angeles-based duo Midnight Faces is, please understand what it isn’t: No fancy producers, no big name special guests, no one wearing robot costumes, no all-analog studio, and no songs recorded live to tape. The Fire Is Gone is the follow-up to 2013’s debut Midnight Faces album Fornication, which despite Doty’s astute reminder that “‘Indie’ and ‘80’s’ are not genres,” reminded folks fondly enough of those sounds. While the bands debut album Fornication was crafted with the help of producer Jason Martin (The Drums, Cold War Kids, Starflyer 59), The Fire Is Gone was recorded and produced by the band at home. The album is preceded by the single “Over Again,” which Stancil explains was “the last song we wrote before sending the album to be mastered.” For a band that beautifully layers sounds, “Over Again” is essentially a guitar, bass, and drums track. Stancil says, “It’s easy to keep adding, but every once in a while it’s good to take it back to basics.”