Release Date: March 4, 2014
Andy Simmons and Holly MacGibbon, known simply as Andy and Holly, comprise the New York-based dark pop-rock duo, Weeknight. Their polished debut album with Artificial Records, Post-Everything, touts the pair’s “languid, obfuscous pop.”
A more sonic version of the xx featuring cool, enveloping male and female vocals, Weeknight is where the melancholy of the Cure meets Beach House’s electronics. With a tongue-in-cheek title, Post-Everything is the equivalent of holding one’s own head underwater while thoroughly enjoying the experience.
While not being particularly novel or exceptionally interesting, Post-Everything is strangely beautiful. Andy and Holly’s voices melt together in their duets, providing consistency in the layers of beats and instrumentals. The whole album is dominated by the interplay between guitars and electronic keys, a dance that becomes entrancing.
Album opener “Hallowed Ground” dives right into the dark and unrelenting nature of Weeknight’s sound with sustained synth-organ and a chorus of, “Hallowed ground, I’ll be there soon.”
The blend of bleakness and shoegaze works in Weeknight’s favor, cementing the tone of the album and creating a comforting darkness.
Post-Everything is atmospheric and weighed down with ’80s ennui. A repeated two-note guitar riff creates suspense in “Wreckage,” a creeping synth track featuring an energetic electronic keyboard breakdown. Simmons told Interview Mag that “Wreckage” is a “song about offering forgiveness to someone that isn’t quite ready to be forgiven.” With lines like, “I couldn’t dream tonight if I tried,” the melodrama is evident, but is bolstered by a wall of sound, a sea of droning chopped up by beats and guitar picks.
A quicker pace, high-pitched synth melodies, and a triangle ding characterize the sickeningly sweet track “Honey.” Andy and Holly croon, “My heart still knows which way to go/My heart still knows which way to go,” on top of a soaring guitar line. A more expressly rock track, “Dark Light,” goes, “Take one breath and do it again/Pray for death and don’t tell a soul,” words that are intercut with guitar string-bending, a slew of effects, and another keyboard line that pulls one down into the swaying loneliness prevalent on Post-Everything.
High-pitched guitar melodies and a profuse use of pedals are staples throughout the album. Pulling distortion, haze, and simple melodic lines from its toolbox, the duo’s genre is an entanglement of elements including pop, electronic, rock, and shoegaze, all with a tinge of blasé despondency.
Weeknight asks to be made fun of. It’s yet another pale, electronic-influenced rock group from Bushwick, Brooklyn with an everyday band name, a milk-toast sound, and an academic album title for a collection of depressing, overwrought tracks. They’re boring—been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
Yet Post-Everything is infectious, haunting, and pleasant in a sad way. Despite everything working against them, Andy and Holly of Weeknight are remarkably catchy, leaving a distinct impression between the ears.
Weeknight- Post-Everything tracklist:
- “Hallowed Ground”
- “Sound of My Voice”
- “Tonight”
- “Devil”
- “I’m the Beaches”
- “Dark Light”
- “Wreckage”
- “Honey”
- “Whale”
- “Heartaches”
