Twilight Muse Release New Album

Rock has arguably never been as alive with vitality as it is in 2023, with virtually every one of its many subgenres finding another life amidst a curious millennial generation. In that spirit, the world welcomes a newcomer act in Twilight Muse this June that is more than worth all of the hype they’ve been attracting on the strength of their new LP, A Moment Out of Time.

Containing a seven-movement tracklist that doesn’t run into the same overindulgent territory that a lot of indie rock LPs have in the past year, A Moment Out of Time isn’t the most expansive record I’ve ever heard in my life, and in some ways, it feels like a supersized EP more than it does an actual album, but don’t let its deceptive running time fool you – this is one loaded smorgasbord of sonic might for sure. Starting with the stick of dynamite that is the combo-pack of “Dreamspace” and “Oh Mama,” Twilight Muse runs through this tracklist as though their lives depend on it, delivering the sort of urgency that is normally reserved for in-person performances exclusively. Simply put, this is a sincerely memorable effort I’d highly recommend to indie rockers everywhere.

The lead vocal is hauntingly brittle in “Dreamspace,” “Electrify Me,” and “Are You In?,” and although there are other instances in which it steals the lion’s share of our affections for itself, these three tracks capture the different angles from which it comes at us better than any others on the album. There’s no debate as to whether or not Twilight Muse has a diverse skillset they’re exhibiting with pride in A Moment Out of Time – that much is obvious even to the most novice of critics out there – and the fact that they went about it with as much discipline as they did is something to marvel at all on its own.

The master mix is extremely tight, at times allowing for songs like “Forever” and “Oh Mama” to feel even more suffocating than they already would have, but I wouldn’t chalk up all of the effectiveness here to production bells and whistles at all. The psychedelic-tinged components of “Destination You” and “Electrify Me” tell me that Twilight Muse is a lot more abstract than basic cosmetics would ever solely account for, and theirs is a developing sound I’m desperate to hear more of soon.

While I only just recently heard about Twilight Muse for the first time, I’m very excited to find out what they’re going to do with the model they’ve set up as their own in A Moment Out of Time. Strangely balladic in even its most blistering of moments, A Moment Out of Time is a picture window into the souls of a band that is more than ready for the primetime stage. It’s a rather black-and-white example of what experimentation can do for a group of otherwise straightforward alternative rockers, but if my gut is correct, it will be but the first of many hot studio cuts from Twilight Muse to see widespread release in the 2020s.

Mindy McCall