Carson Aday is a right, straight, head on, rock star in the making. On his full length record, the Dallas based indie rock up and comer is at his most vulnerable. ‘Midnight on a Flower Moon’ is an outpouring of Aday’s life’s experiences, passions, and pains into a single project. Most of the album grapples with loss, both through heartbreak and betrayal. Aday’s also the sole artist behind the entire instrumental apparatus on this album. Growing up playing the piano, he quickly picked up the guitar, drums, and bass.
You can hear Aday’s influences resonating through this project. Particularly, his vocal performance is very reminiscent to Frusciante’s solo work. On the album’s opener, ‘Redwood Trees’, Aday uses this short two minute track to blast you into his world. The song comes absolutely crashing towards the end with a crescendo that’s overpoweringly overwhelming, something you don’t tend to expect from the first track of a record. On ‘She Took Your Heart and Ran’, Carson’s witty lyricism and infectious melodic expertise gives him a piece of infectious indie rock that anyone will find tons to adore with.
I first fell in love with Aday’s style on his almost carbon copy tribute song, ‘Ode to The Strokes’. From the instrumentation to his own vocal performance, you’d be hard pressed to even realise that this wasn’t from the legendary rock group. In just a few months since launching his career, Aday is already well on the path to stardom in his genre. His penchant for crafting indie rock tunes that are not just infectious, but plaintive, poignant, and hopeful, sets him markedly apart.
There’s so much emotion strewn all across this record. You feel pained, you feel longing, but, at the end of it all, you leave with a sense of hope and renewed sense of spirit towards everything around you.