Album Review: The Nights

The Nights is the second album from Mountain Boy – who began as a solo project for Aaron Clarke – following and continuing the story of their 2024 debut The Days. While the first record was shaped by the solitude of an artist not unfamiliar with challenging himself – he already had a year-long song-a-week personal challenge under his belt – The Nights was created by a band of friends, lending it the campfire flicker of flames fanned by connection. So – indeed, as night follows day – this fuller band approach builds on the potential of Mountain Boy’s lovely first album, and the early promise of a clearly dedicated artist. 

The Nights is an album that’s a balm for winter, coming on as warm as the California soft rock of the Eagles (or solo works of their Glenn Frey and Don Henley), and as immaculately cut as a slice of 1970’s chart-toppers Bread. Mountain Boy carries me back to many of my favourite mellow musical touch tones in a score of smooth ways. 

In a more modern nod, it also blows through like the best of Luke Buda, dusted with the melodic shimmer of Edmund Puff – felt from the first note struck. Single Windows twists the top off the album, coming on sparkling and clear, managing to sound somehow simultaneously fresh and classic, thanks to vocals that bring to mind the aforementioned 1970’s icons and Jackson Browne. A swaying meld of keyboards (shout-out to Bailey Sterling), and guitars draws a heart around the relatable sentiment of comfort found in the simple pleasures of “sharing smokes and wine”, and moonlit goodnight kisses. 

Love – for a partner, for a child, for humanity – seems to be a primary driving force, and this is particularly celebrated in the build up to the soaring refrain for single Like You Do. It’s a pretty and swoonsome tribute to the singer’s one and only. You can feel the crowd swaying as it lopes across a personal, yet majestic, emotional landscape of adoration. 

Thunder begins with a minimally accompanied acoustic guitar, so meditative you can almost smell the ozone on it, before coming on like warm rain you want to rush outside to dance in. It’s a rollicking release that shows the enormous potential Mountain Boy has to touch all the people – from cruisers to groovers. 

My My My is one of my favourite tracks. This series of simple stories about everyday people combines all the best things about Mountain Boy into a country package that lingers long thanks to its simple, beautifully harmonised titular chorus, and the characters surrounding it.

Single Monsters is another standout track. Relatable night terrors are addressed, with an uplifting cure of empowerment. The reassurance (to the singer’s wee daughter) ‘that you’ve got fight!’ is fist punchingly anthemic. Single The Give and The Take feels similarly classic, with an expansive scope. Single Heard It In The Wind is a great showcase for so many of the elements that make Mountain Boy a beautifully integrated band. 

If there has been an album that’s made me want to be alone meditating upon life and love in a pup tent, in an open field, singing along to my transistor radio in the biggest way, this is it. If you like your guitars many and varied – with special props to Jonas Vallandingham for pedal steel, and Sterling for banjo – and enjoy reflecting on the little things that really are the big things, Mountain Boy will save a rocking chair on the porch for you.