“Summer Song” — the first song from Past Midnight, the latest EP from the New Haven-based band Arms Like Roses — earns its title from its opening guitar lines, sunny, chiming, and intertwining. The vocal climbs through them: “Time flies with a blink of an eye / And a whisper that reminds you it’s cold outside / Again, not again,” the vocalist sings. As percussion enters, adding urgency, the whole band digs deeper into the late-summer vibe, the kind that’s the most poignant for how truly fleeting it is.
“All I want Is to be alone,” the vocalist sings. “I’ll wait til summer comes, and I’ll be fine / All I need / I’m begging you please / For just one reason to thank you, to smile / So please don’t forget me.”
Arms Like Voices — Estelle Angel on vocals, Thomas Shreve on percussion and vocals, Xela Stockmal on acoustic guitar and vocals, Adam Padilla on electric guitar, and Nina Marie on bass and vocals — has by all appearances made the most of the pandemic, releasing the EP Get Some Sleep in May and following up already with Past Midnight. Most intriguing is that Past Midnight isn’t more of the same. The elements that made Get Some Sleep ear-catching are all in place. There are the knotty song structures and their surprising twists and turns, coupled with an emotional directness embodied in Angel’s voice, which exudes strength and fragility in every phrase.
But while Get Some Sleep had a hard, raw edge to it, Past Midnight takes a simpler sonic approach. The acoustic guitars are their unadorned selves. The effects on the electric guitar and bass are dialed way back. The percussion is sometimes stripped back to shakers and tambourines, as it is on “Hum,” a cover of a Tigers Jaw song. But the energy stays high. Star’s vocal is as urgent as ever, and the instruments show that they don’t need to be loud to pack a punch.
An acoustic rendering of “Wallflower,” which appeared on Get Some Sleep, drives the point home. The original used grittier guitar sounds and a full drum kit to make a lurching rocker. The warmer sound of the instruments on Past Midnight (the band reveals that it made the recording for a submission to NPR Tiny Desk Concerts competition) lends the song a lusher sound, particularly on the chorus, in which the band provides a cooing background. But there are still plenty of delights, as when the end reaches a different place altogether. That’s when all the band members seem to open their throats, and just the right amount of distortion is applied to the guitar, to lend the song a new kind of rawness.
The energy in the band’s songs translates to its gigging schedule, as Arms Like Roses has been playing all over the New Haven area (and New England more broadly) since reopening has made that possible. The band is rounding off their summer schedule with — appropriate for the sound of Past Midnight an acoustic set alongside a set by Evelyn Gray this Thursday, Sept. 2, at Best Video. Catch them both while the weather remains wistfully warm.
Past Midnight is available on Bandcamp. See Best Video’s event listings for more details on this and other upcoming shows.