A strong debut EP from one of the Midlands’s most-promising up-and-coming indie-rock outfits
Birmingham-based four-piece, overpass, are one of the strongest bands coming out of the Midlands right now. And this writer is from the East Midlands, so you can trust me on this one; I’m very maturely putting any rivalries aside to praise a West Midlands band, since overpass are well worth the attention and hype that they have been receiving as of late.
The band have been releasing singles since late 2020, but it was 2022’s ‘3AM’ that put them on the map for many listeners within the indie music sphere, followed by 2023’s ‘Right Time’ - their strongest single up until that point. The momentum was growing and the band were improving with each release, so there was a lot of buzz surrounding the announcement that they would be releasing an EP at the beginning of 2024.
That very EP, titled From the Night, is out on Friday (16 February) and, while it is slightly disappointing that ‘3AM’ and ‘Right Time’ didn’t make the cut, From the Night does deliver a solid tracklist of five indie-rock tunes.
The EP kicks off with the title track, which has an anthemic and catchy introduction from the get-go, the guitars steeped in emotion before vocalist Max Newy even begins to sing; the track easily rivals ‘Right Time’ as overpass’s best to date.
'One of the strongest bands coming out of the Midlands right now': overpass (photo credit: Sam McGill)
‘Stay Up’, which comes at the halfway point of the EP, continues this positive trajectory, with the band conveying a compelling story through the combination of their vocals and guitars, which intertwine with one another seamlessly throughout the track. Meanwhile, ‘Alright’, the cut which is sandwiched between the two, is a more high-octane, traditional indie-rock tune, turning the energy up a notch, but noticeably lacking that emotion that ‘From the Night’ and ‘Stay Up’ are drenched in.
While ‘Alright’ is still a perfectly enjoyable indie-rock tune, it does little to subvert or add to the genre, falling victim to some of the predictable tropes that you would expect to hear from a four-piece indie band in the 2020s. The vocal performance and the guitars are tight but they seem to lack the passion and persistence of the tracks surrounding it on the EP; as a standalone single it holds its own, but when positioned between ‘From the Night’ and ‘Stay Up’, these tracks only serve to highlight what it lacks.
The two closing tracks, ‘Wide Eyed’ and ‘Beautiful’, aim to deliver the same sentiment as ‘From the Night’ and ‘Stay Up’, and, while they fail to capture quite the same level of conviction, the intention is most definitely there. The closest they come to this is on the chorus of the closing track ‘Beautiful’, where Newy almost reaches the same heights as he sings: “Do we still need the chance to be beautiful?”
overpass are at their best when they channel their emotion into every element of their music, enabling them to stand out among the influx of four-piece, male-led indie guitar bands that consistently emerge onto the scene. When they succeed at this, they are able to tower above their peers and, while not every track on From the Night quite accomplishes this just yet, it remains a strong debut EP from one of the Midlands’s most-promising up-and-coming indie-rock outfits.
Rating: 7.5
From the Night is out on Friday (16 February) via Is Right Records