The Night Flight Orchestra – Give Us the Moon
I’ve been a fan of The Night Flight Orchestra since 2018’s Sometimes the World is Enough. Bringing the retro 80s vibes with this synth and keyboard fuelled stadium hard rock. 2025’s Give Us the Moon is another solid entry into their discography.
If you want catchy rock music, you can’t go wrong with this. From the airport flight attendant intro Final Call (these little moments are peppered throughout the album unobtrusively and help the album flow) into first proper song Stratus which really sets the tone for this album. Infections keyboards lead this track. Whilst follow up Shooting Velvet is more guitar drive. Each song has a fantastic air guitar worthy solo.
This project allows vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid (whose day job is vocalist for melodic death metal crew Soilwork) to stretch his melodic clean style, don’t expect any growls here! Supported by female backing vocals, this is quite different to his day job.
Talking of vocals, they are catchy earworms. It won’t be many listens until you have these tracks struck in your head, you’re humming along or full-on carpool karaoke style singing whilst driving. The lyrics are positive with that 80’s pop feel, at times reminding me of ABBA.
We get different tempo tracks to keep things fresh and interesting. Some are faster paced and will make you want to put your put on the pedal whilst driving. Others are calmer mid paced Like the Beating of a Heart being a prime example, which has a great transition from slower synth solo into another fantastic guitar solo.
What I’ve always been impressed with by this band is the high quality of every element of their sound. I’ve already highlighted vocals, synth, keyboards and guitar, but the bass and drums holding the rhythm section together more than ably do their job. With the production allowing you to pick out the different layers easily.
This is another album this year that just brings me a lot of joy each time I listen. The 13 tracks clock in 59 minutes, being on par with the rest of their discography. Those 59 minutes certainly fly by!
If you need to lift your mood, relax and unwind, or want a good soundtrack for a drive this is the album to choose.
Top tracks: Runaways, Shooting Velvet, Paloma
