“It’s hard to find your way, following the ghost,” sings Noah Alves on the title track of Middleman’s debut album. The London DIY four-piece take aim at nostalgia and the weight of the past, interrogating how memory can stall forward motion. From the opening moments of “CSN,” driving riffs and pummelling drums frame a restless meditation on authenticity, myth and the pull of bygone eras.
“CSN” nods to Crosby, Stills and Nash while refusing to romanticize them. “Ideas about authenticity definitely crop up quite a lot,” Alves says. “And nostalgia too – looking at the past with a focus on how our perception of this can be distorted. I wouldn’t describe it as anti-nostalgia but more how nostalgia can be damaging when you feel like the best stuff is in the past and there’s nothing new and exciting to be done.” It is sharp, self-aware songwriting with bite.
Alves, Harper Maury, Rory White and Ted Foster channel the wiry assault of Mission of Burma, the melodic charge of The Replacements and the punch of Wipers, balanced by flashes of Big Star and Neil Young. The album moves between punk velocity and hook-laden craft. “CSN” explodes into blistering alt rock, “All But The Flame” surges with melodic lift, and “Distractions” barrels through two minutes of pure overdrive.
Recorded and mixed by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse Recording Studio, the record captures a band in full stride. “We wanted to balance songs between more punky ones and slightly softer ones,” says Alves. Subtle tambourine, acoustic guitar and a collaborative writing process deepen the texture. The result is raw, immediate and fiercely alive, a debut that plants Middleman firmly in the present.