As a band comprised of what could be described as three ceaselessly starving culture vultures, Perennial found themselves bequeathed with an endless supply of influences growing up, with cultural hubs such as New York City, Boston, New Haven and Northampton orbiting their homestead. Be it the bustling local live scenes, the widespread embracement of world cinema and literature, or the promotion of fresh ideologies courtesy of their nearby liberal arts colleges, the trio rabidly consumed art, drinking deep from the untapped pool of art and progressivism that collected on their doorstep. The end result is a band that, in turn, want to make something new, fresh and exciting. It’s a mission statement that’s been proclaimed countless times in recent years, but truly, Perennial have completely surpassed that goal with In The Midnight Hour, a record that can – only loosely – be labelled as punk.
As it’s title and sleeve art alludes to, In The Midnight Hour stands as 12 conceptual songs on the nature of the night compressed into a meagre 22 minutes; with compressed being the key word here. Within these 22 minutes the band bombastically crash through more styles and tell more stories than most bands will manage in their entire careers, something that opener ‘The Skelton Dance’ implies with teeth-clenched vigour. Following on from a withheld introduction complete with synthetic creeping and Chelsey Hahn’s baited vocals, the floodgates are not so much as raised as they are blown complete off the hinges, with the following track being a flogging of pure adrenaline and energy. Throughout the track and the proceeding ‘Soliloquy For Neil Perry’, Hahn and fellow multi-instrumentalist Chad Jewett trade bellowed lines against angular funk riffs, chirpy keyboard motifs and the hammering percussion of Wil Mulhern in a fashion that’s composed, yet utterly wild and rambunctious.
Whilst these tracks do see the band borrowing from punk trendsetters such as The Hives, Refused and Q And Not U, as the record progresses it becomes transparent that such punk stylings are merely the foundation of Perennial’s highly eclectic sound. As the band continue to trample through the likes of ‘Food For Hornets’, ‘Tooth Plus Claw’ and the more hardcore stomp of ‘Melody For A New Cornett’, further elements are uncovered in a way that’s natural and not forcibly inserted. Dance-punk, hard bop, electronic dance and even 60’s pop come into the fray with the free spirited nature of freeform jazz, inter-splicing the groove and erratic rhythms that form such songs.
Yes, whilst this wild fusion of stylings does sound scrappy, that is admittedly the irresistible charm of this record. In The Midnight Hour is a record that embraces the aggression and original nonconformity of the halcyon punk sound without playing into the cliches or stereotypical tropes associated with the genre and style. Instead, it embraces that to truly to be a punk record, it must sway from the conceived notions of the genre. It’s a nonstop sugar rush of nocturnal excitement, one that see’s Perennial jettisoning away from tired and exhausted sound of the genre as of late in order to provide something truly fresh and fully reinvigorating.
In The Midnight Hour is abound to fully resonate with anyone who is longing for a rampaging punk record that refuses to be a punk record, and whilst the idea of a band purposefully charging through a myriad of genres may sound superfluous, Perennial display the reckless abandon and creativity required to pull it off. This is an album for endless possibilities the night brings, one to battle off the dangers that come synonymous, and ultimately, one that shows that punk still has a lot of offer as long as you refuse to comply with the ardent definition of the genre.