Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
0151, The Night Cafe (2019), is an album that has flown under the radar of the vast majority of music enjoyers. The Night Café falls under the Indie and British Rock genres, and whilst many artists under these deserve more recognition, I believe 0151 has enough to please any listener.
The album contains 18 songs, with a large number of them being standouts. The first one being the introduction to the album, ‘0151 Intro’. It’s not a popular track on the album as it’s not an orthodox song, but I enjoy that. It consists of synth waves which create a very calming atmosphere. And whilst there are no lyrics, a distorted voice repeats an unintelligible phrase, which can be heard in a later song ‘Take Care, Pt. 1’. It’s the perfect song to enjoy on a walk with the sun glaring in the distance. The track ends with a guitar riff which is the main component for the following song ‘Finders Keepers’, allowing the two songs to connect and flow perfectly into each other. This is a recurring theme throughout the album.
Segues are when songs seamlessly transition into another song and The Night Café enjoy employing this into their music. It occurs on six different occasions on 0151. In an interview with Guitar.com, the lead singer, Sean Martin, reveals that he wanted to structure their album like The Maccabees. “They make sure every track links. I think proper musicians find it a lot more rewarding to listen to the album the whole way through.” This aspect might be what I enjoy most about the album and the two songs that do this the best are ‘Calling Your Name (Again)’ linking to my favourite song ‘Endless Lovers’, with a distinct sound which would bring bliss to your ears.
Another brilliant thing about many of the songs on this album, is that they are very versatile mood setters. Tracks like ‘Please’, ‘Endless Lovers’ and ‘I Know (I’m Sure)’ can be listened to at any point, whether you’re feeling encouraged or fresh out of a break-up. All the while, the album includes a few interlude songs which have more of a slow, plaintive tone like ‘Breathing In’ and ‘Take Care, Pt. 1’. Given the interlude tracks, it puts a different perspective on the album length. 18 songs may be enough to put some people off but the reality is that the album runs for just over an hour. With the shortest song ‘Breathing In’ being 33 seconds and the longest track ‘I Know (I’m Sure)’ which runs for seven minutes. Don’t let that bother you, though. It’s one of the better tracks.
The album comes full circle with its ending, paying slight homage to its opener ‘0151 Intro’. The final track ‘Leave Me Alone’, despite its title is not all doom and gloom. Again, it’s another song that can be played at any time. The last 30 seconds of the track reverts back to the roots of the album with a calming tone, ending on a note that would have you relaxed, closed eyes with a grin on your face. A very satisfying and appropriate ending to a great album that deserves very high praise.
