Following the release of her 2014 album, Little Machines, LIGHTS was immediately flooded with requests for acoustic renditions for many of the songs off the record. Two years later, she did more than deliver. In fact, she took it a step further by reinventing the songs in their entirety.
On April 8th, 2016, LIGHTS released her fourth studio album, titled Midnight Machines, to showcase her adaptability and vision when re-creating a song. Singles such as “Up We Go” and “Meteorites” are completely reimagined in this new album, like separate voices telling their sides of a story presented in Little Machines.
Where “Up We Go” initially featured a peppy tune that easily passes for a summer anthem, LIGHTS’ rendition of the song in Midnight Machines strips it down to its very sincere and melodic core that captures the listener’s heart. Beginning in the moment we hear the words “here, in a familiar place”, recognizing the tune we fell in love with on her previous album, we are given a new perspective that allows us to reevaluate our own understanding of how we experience music. It’s only fitting that the first words of the album act as a subtle reminder that we have been in this same position of hearing this song for the first time, and that each version varies in its respective meaning.
“Meteorites” similarly evokes this sense of a calm and honest demonstration of pure emotion. Where Little Machines gave listeners a space to jam and rock out, Midnight Machines provides a platform for its audience to feel in a variety of settings. Likewise, tracks like “Same Sea” and “Running with the Boys” maintain a breezy and airy auditory experience that works perfectly for background noise or late-night contemplations.
This acoustic album additionally features two new singles titled “Follow You Down” and “Head Cold”, which do nothing but enhance the record. With lyrics such as “caught in a landslide” and “need a little push now”, these songs add to the album’s overall drive to evoke the listener’s sentimentality. Equally so, the phrase “keep moving...doors always open when another one closes” provides the listener with a sense of closure with a make-shift story arc.
Where Little Machines brought back the sound from 2009’s The Listening, the ambiance of Midnight Machines reflects that of LIGHTS’ acoustic EP with its vulnerability and soft-spoken honesty.
LIGHTS goes on record to say that this album in particular “happened really naturally and beautifully”, citing the synchronic musical instincts shared by the band members. In reference to the addition of the string quartet to develop the record, she perfectly describes the sentiment captured by the acoustic retelling of these songs by saying that there’s “something undeniable about strings—there’s bends and in-between notes and these natural movements that you can’t imitate”, which ultimately bring these songs to life.
LIGHTS comments that she believes the point of music is to fill a space, and this album does just that by providing a subtle commentary to the listener’s senses. Just as she hoped to accomplish by recreating the atmosphere associated with these songs, Midnight Machines manages to redefine the means by which we interpret music as an auditory experience.
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