Album Review

The Midnight Beast – Shtick Heads

• 2nd Jun 2014

The Midnight Beast has now become something of a youth, or should that be yoof, phenomenon. Starring in a tv comedy show about three twenty somethings from South London trying (and failing) to make it big in the music world, they have become immensely popular. And their YouTube videos are routinely viewed by millions. After two series on E4 the intriguing comedy/ music crossover trio now release a second album of satirical hip hop/ pop songs.

The Midnight Beast are Stefan Abingdon, Dru Wakely and Ashley Horne, who all come from the very South London culture that they satirise. Clearly they don’t take themselves too seriously, although the lyrics of their songs merit careful study, as there is definitely some truth in there. And it does take musical skill to pull off such an eclectic mix of hip hop and pop with elements of rock and psychedelia thrown in for good measure.

Most of the album’s sixteen tracks are short and based around elaborately orchestrated raps. But occasionally more muted bursts of piano or keyboard sounds accompany short statements that sum up the joke. It’s clever stuff really, even if a lot of them do boil down to some fairly juvenile humour, like the knob jokes of Beast Song Ever or the Alzheimer’s theme in When I’m Older.

There are some great lines within these songs. The Main One opens with “If music be the food of love I’m Gordon fucking Ramsay” and Love Bites featuring a vampire tells us that “I had to buy her perfume because she always smells of dirt”, while Sextape is full of funny references to celebrities whose fame definitely doesn’t stem from musical talent.

The trio of Pointless Skit 1, 2 and 3 are quite funny, short spoken sections that give insight into the characters behind the band. You do have to give them credit for doing this stuff with a straight face. A few samples are also added in to liven things up, with a quick chorus from It’s My Party opening Sweet Sixteen and Holiday featuring Cliff Richard (no, really).

The appeal of The Midnight Beast is likely to be fairly limited but there is definitely talent underneath the geeky image. It probably comes across more in the television shows than on an album though. For me this was a fun collection of songs to listen to a few times although not one I’ll come back to, in much the way that a joke wears thin when you’ve heard it. But then I’m probably not the target market here …

Venue: Shtick Heads
Support Band: Sounds Like Good