_{Tekst: Anouck Bosma
Translation: Laura Rosierse}

Today ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ was being released by pop band Middle Kids. The band treated us to some previews with previously released singles ‘Questions’ and ‘Cellophane’, both made us incredibly curious to hear what was to come, the album ended up being a very nice surprise. After the release of their debut album three years ago in 2019, the band released an EP, singer Hannah Joy became a mother and married fellow band member Tim Fitz. Sounds like there would have been plenty of inspiration for the album! 

Middle Kids was founded by singer Hannah Joy, bass player Tim Fitz and drummer Harry Day. Joy wrote the lyrics for ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ while Fitz produced the album. The album starts with ‘Bad Neighbours’, a song that gives us feelings of melancholy, for the song Fitz wrote the lyrics because it’s a very personal story for Joy. ‘Bad Neighbours’ was inspired by traumatic experiences from her youth. Those melancholic feelings seem like a red thread throughout the album, we can hear it again on ‘Lost In Los Angeles’. Something that stands out about this album is that all songs are different yet fit together like pieces from a puzzle. What makes this album such a beautiful piece of art is no matter how happy or sad these songs sound, there is always a certain vulnerability in the voice of Joy that always touches a nerve. On ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ we hear more love songs than we have heard of the band before. It is noticeable that a lot of thought went into the writing of the lyrics to make sure they wouldn’t sound too cliche. The best surprise is hiding near the end of the album, in the last second of the song ‘Run With You’, we hear Joy and Fitz’s newborn’s heartbeat! The first EP was released in 2017 and comparing the new album to their first piece of work, we hear how well the band has been growing the past few years and how they have really found their sound!

Domino