Album Review: Uncle Acid & the deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight

Album Review: Uncle Acid & the deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight

Reviewed by Mathhew Williams

If you look on the Bandcamp page of Uncle Acid and the deadbeats, is states that they are “The UK’s third worst psycho rock group”. I’d like to know who numbers 1 and 2 are, but as a fan of the group, it’s great to have the Cambridge quintet back with their seventh album, “Shapes of Midnight”. It’s a concept album partly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, and mixed with their “Evil Beatles” sound, it gives us plenty to enthuse about.

As soon as you hear the opening bars of “House of the Grave” it is distinctively Uncle Acid, with the unmistakeable voice of Kevin Starrs, who says that “our albums exist in an alternate universe to our own”. It’s another thrilling concoction of spooky harmonies, pop laden hooks and Thin Lizzy esque guitar rhythms, which is what attracted me and many others to them in the first place. The sound is further enhanced as they recorded at Abbey Road Studios, live to analogue tape, and used equipment from a bygone era, including Neumann mics.

The sound they’ve created is simply sublime, with the organ notes flooding through, and their chords really shine on the album title track. It bounces along and then the guitar has a lovely psychedelic/space age feel to it, as the consistent rhythm bursts in the background. Throughout the eight songs, you get blasts of Krautrock, weaved around jazzy notes and elements of NWOBHM. They have evolved with dark melodies alongside crafted melancholy, and it has worked a treat.

“When Evil Wakes” has sinister overtones and the organ playing enhances this perfectly, with solos popping off all over the place, the track flows effortlessly. They raise the energy levels on “Don’t Let it Control You” with a quicker paced number, and a delicious bass line can be heard driving them forward. It’s a very danceable tune but still maintains that essence of macabre which is ingrained throughout. With an intriguing 80’s inspired keyboard intro, “Psycho on the Loose” is a very interesting song, as the bass is prominent but the whole arrangement feels mischievous yet innovative, with a catchy chorus line making it my favourite song on the album.

There’s a warm psychedelic embrace at the beginning of “I Won’t Sleep (`til You’re Gone)” as the rhythm takes you on another one of their adventures. The underlying riff is an instant ear worm, as the solo soars in and out of the melody, with the vocals further enhancing the weirdness and then it’s all about the stunning saxophone. About the collection of songs, the frontman says that “they’re all stories that could happen here, but everything’s just a bit off” so expect the unexpected.

“The Other Side of the Sky” has a weightier touch about it, moodier and darker than what has gone before it, yet weaved beautifully into the band’s tapestry, with a solo that is somehow gloomy and uplifting in equal measure. They end with “Sleep No More” and a riff that Thin Lizzy themselves would have been proud to write. The pace to it is sumptuous, and as end tracks go, this is right up there with some of the best.

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