Written by Marilù Ciabattoni
Discovered via Musosoup
Sanjay Michael draws inspiration from classic rock icons like the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Bruce Springsteen in his latest record Rocking Into Midnight.
The album is very traditional and doesn’t present many innovations in the genre, but I don’t think this was Sanjay’s intention to begin with: rather, the artist is more interested in giving his listeners–or audience, crowd–a good time.
Sanjay’s voice adapts to every situation: from the more aggressive to the sweeter ballad tones.
“Rocking Into Midnight” opens the album in an energetic way: Sanjay sings over the traditional combo of electric guitar, bass and drums.
“Rattlesnake Shuffle” very creatively starts with rattlesnake sound effects. The instrumentals take up a bit more space while Sanjay’s singing is way more rhythmic than in the previous track.
“Fly Away” is a guitar-led ballad that gives us a break from the rock and rolling of the previous two tracks to describe the artist’s love for a beautiful girl.
With “Rockin’ Machine,” Sanjay picks up the rock and roll pace once more.
Halfway through the album, we get to “Vampire Girl,” which might as well be your Halloween anthem for this year.
“Backtracks” starts in an unusual way compared to the rest of the album: pacing little by little until we reach the normal rhythm of the track.
“Should Have Never Let You Go,” like “Fly Away,” is a sweeter sort of ballad which slows down our heart rate, giving us a break from the more aggressive feel of the rest of the album. We see Sanjay opening this track by speaking instead of singing.
“It’s Just Business” is a very rhythmic track which sees Sanjay singing higher than his usual vocal range.
The second by last song on the record, “Friday Night Drinks” starts with very distorted electric guitar effects. Sanjay takes his time with a long instrumental section before entering the track singing. His style here is different from the rest of the album: it’s very 1950s rock n’ roll as opposed to the 1960s/1970s influences mentioned above. The track is literally about the boozy effects of–you guessed it–Friday night drinks.
“City Blues” closes the album in a very rhythmic way, giving the crowd one final banger to clap their hands and bang their hands to.
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