0151 - The Night Cafe: An Analysis of an Underrated Masterpiece

Typically here at Unraveled, we like to cover (relatively) new releases, giving you a deep dive into what’s what in the local and international music and fashion scenes. This review is going to be a little different though - it’s more of a tribute to a criminally underrated and almost obscure album. 0151 is the debut LP of Liverpool-based indie rock group The Night Cafe, which was released in 2019. The band formed in 2014 and between then and now, has released 2 EPs and an album, alongside a few outlying singles. Very, very little other info is available, so the biographical portion of this review is already checked off in the first paragraph. Why write about this album then? Because it’s fantastic, a complete curiosity in a vacuum, and worth checking out.

0151 is astounding because, for a debut album, it’s completely rock solid, and really hard to fault. The band sound like an incredibly seasoned act, with a well-polished, gorgeously mixed and arranged LP to be proud of. Had it got the exposure it deserved, it could have been a quintessential indie-rock classic. At first, it’s quite unassuming, but the longer you listen, the more engrossing and fascinating it becomes. It blends the typically warm, often suffocating nostalgia that infects a lot of indie rock with a sophistication and nuance that lifts this project beyond many of its peers. There’s just something in the sound that is captivating in a way that’s hard to articulate properly (rather annoying for someone who writes about music releases). It’s that mystery factor that makes it all the more interesting. After all, this is an album that wound up in my music library 2 years ago almost out of nowhere, with little to no ceremony, has stayed as one of my favourite go-to listens and is an album that I can confidently argue has merit as a work of art. Why is that?

Sure, the curiosity factor counts for something, however, I would chalk it up to the combination of the band’s sound and the great production. The songs themselves are pretty good on their own, but the way they’re assembled here is what makes them interesting. The biological concept of emergence, where a collective of organisms is greater and more intelligent than the sum of its parts, is my number one argument for why albums as a format should always be championed over drip-feeding singles, and why even on individual tracks, arrangement and production should always be a consideration to inform the overall sound. That concept is what brings the songs on 0151 to greater heights than they otherwise might reach. Even the plain and simple album artwork, an underexposed photo of a regional city skyline, is a fitting representation of the imagery conjured by the music and helps inform the listening experience.

I’m going to use my favourite track from the album, Turn, as the test case here. The lyrics are plain and simple, but the combination of the effect-drenched guitars, unapologetic drums and guarded yet vulnerable vocals bring a surprising depth and urgency. Speaking of guitars, the guitar timbres on that song alone are, with no hyperbole, among my personal favourites in any Western music. Warm, distorted and cushy without being muddy, with lead parts that are hazy one minute and searing the next. All the parts sit in perfect balance, dipping in and out of prominence where required. The overall sound created is nothing short of silky smooth. The Night Cafe have eschewed the usual indie temptation of a deliberately low fidelity mix and instead has brought a stunning clarity and sense of space to the songs, uncommon for an early release.

Next, I’m going to indulge in my percussion background and gush about the drums. Carl Dillon’s kit work is intelligent, pulling the perfect double duty as a rhythmic foundation and solo instrument in its own right. Unusually for a contemporary rock song, the drums are on even footing with the guitars in terms of timbral importance, feeling more like a harmonic instrument than purely a rhythmic tool. Endless Lovers is probably my favourite example. Charging along, keeping pace, being interesting and complex without being distracting, but in a genius trick of arranging, takes centre stage in the chorus - all without becoming indulgent. Those thundering tom breakdowns and fills go beyond sounding like a fun choice of instrumentation, being charged with the same emotional urgency as the other instruments. It’s no mean feat, and certainly something to take note of.

Even the vocals aren’t quite what they seem. Through the simple and partially vague lyrics and the mixing, the vocals feel more like a guitar, more like a traditional instrument, a lead melody that carries you through the song. Where a vocal part traditionally grabs and holds your attention as the salient point, singer Sean Martin instead invites you to listen to him as part of the band as a whole, a homogenous, unified machine of moving parts. The lyrics are allowed to get fleetingly lost occasionally under the other instruments, but not to the detriment of the song. The mood and the conveyed scenes of each song aren’t always super clear, yet somehow they can be understood. The effect lends these songs a more artistic quality, a sense of impressionism.

Taking a macro look at the album as a whole package, it could easily be classified as indie rock, or to an extent, shoegaze. I would like to propose, however, that 0151 is what I refer to as impressionist rock. The tone and colour of this LP have some hallmarks of shoegaze, certainly, but it feels different. It’s too clean; somehow, the haziness has clarity and precision that keeps it from being too abstract. And then you read between the lines, the spaces between the songs. The standalone instrumental interludes feel purposeful and like genuine vignettes. Most tracks also have surprisingly sophisticated transitions, adding colour and life to what would otherwise be space, and the result is an album that feels like care and attention were given to every single detail. It means the album’s pacing can ebb and flow without any dead space or wasted time, and any space that does exist is like an orchestrated deep breath. It might seem contrived and pretentious to liken what appears to be a solid indie-rock album to a piece of impressionist art, but on a broad level, it does have the same effect as anything by Monet or Cezanne.

While I certainly couldn’t argue that 0151 is the perfect album, it’s damn near close. It is a triumph, criminally underrated and is one of the few albums that truly deserves far greater exposure and attention than it initially received. In a highly unexpected twist, it’s an indie rock masterpiece that at times feels closer to being a work of art than a standard release, and there are so many elements in play that can justify that stance. Everything from the colour of the songs themselves, the arrangement, the mixing, the interludes and accessible experimental moments; all add up. It’s lightning in a bottle, a musical phenomenon that seemingly went undetected, and I believe it should be homework for all aspiring indie-, pop- and alt-rock bands. If you want to make the impossible, the mythical perfect first album, then ensure you listen to The Night Cafe’s 0151 - the new diamond standard of debut efforts.