Bright Nights

On their first new material in a decade, Anglo-Australian indiepop quartet Allo Darlin’ return with their album Bright Nights, marking the return of their smart, beautiful pop music. The lyrics resonate with experience, and the melodies chime, echo, and soar. Missing each other and the music they made together, Allo Darlin’ started having group Zoom calls during the early days of the corona pandemic. They decided that when the pandemic was over, they would become a band again. True to their word, in early 2023, the band announced that they would play a couple of shows in October of that year in the UK. The fan response was truly overwhelming. Tickets sold out in minutes, with fans travelling from all over the world. The band had to upgrade their London show to a venue twice the size of the original. It seemed like their fans had missed Allo Darlin’ as much as they had missed each other. Bright Nights follows the emotional tides of the preceding ten years. Songwriter and vocalist Elizabeth Morris Innset describes it as an album from the heart, dealing with themes of love, birth, and death. Drawing inspiration from a mix of classic pop, folk, and country, the album picks up where Allo Darlin’ left off with the warmth of 2014’s We Come From The Same Place and recalls the confident and sophisticated sound of their second album, Europe. While Bright Nights isn’t a country album, the timelessness of folk and country influences weave throughout the record. “My Love Will Bring You Home” might be written about Elizabeth’s young daughters, but it’s a mother’s love song disguised as a country love song. Allo Darlin’ songs work because they take us to a place where we feel loved, leading us to parts of ourselves we’ve either suppressed or have yet to discover, and then are there to catch us if and when we get there. In a changeable world, the warm embrace of their new record is as needed as it is welcome.