It’s safe to say area bedroom-electronica artist Midnight Rally utilizes the phrase “vertically integrated” just as passionately when discussing relationships as it does describing the sound of its early-’80s-influenced debut, wonderfully self-produced from top to bottom and released in January 2025.

Now, there’s a recording effect that was discovered when Peter Gabriel was recording Melt in 1979, as Phil Collins was fooling around in a top-of-the-line studio, newly equipped with a ceiling-hanging mic for the engineer to hear/talk to the band back and forth between booths (Genesis money . . .). Collins hit the snare, and that studio’s highly compressing hanging mic picked up a little reverb that abruptly stops at the end of Collins’ snare tap. They called it “gated reverb,” and the drum sound eventually captured the world, as heard in Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” for example.

Nightfalls opens anthemic and empowering with “Not Today,” an upbeat ’80s synth-pop piece, gated reverb percussion ridding the air of any embattled maliciousness within a relationship that builds up and leads to inner anger, leading on a journey through the rest of the album (but not before taking a darker turn . . .).

The industrial ’80s-banger of the album, “Darkness,” marches through a darker guitar and synth intro with lyrics You back me up against the wall / And I like that, before kicking up a maelstrom in the bridge so violent it may possibly require Dramamine.

Snapping out of it (perhaps the ultimate theme of Nightfalls), “Sunset” provides a smooth dance groove with intimately recorded vocals; vocal effects first muffle in the chorus, then become crisper for the verse, before a killer guitar solo at the bridge soothes the atmosphere.

The album’s namesake utilizes a bluesy Wurlitzer along with a Father John Misty vocal style, as the organ’s oscillation and appropriately dissonant reverb swirls into the seemingly everlasting crescendo of the first verse eventually joined, and settled by, an acoustic guitar strum as Rally sings of coming undone, going down so low, but seeing oneself.

Stirring harmonies disturb before beautifully hitting any rejoicing notes, climbing Midnight Rally out of the hole the “nightfalls” create.

On “Dangerous Dancer,” another industrial-based dance mix with MIDI-trash drum percussion, a melodious synth holds the flow and beat together, just jamming a little in electronica land, revealing more about the album’s antagonist (she’s a dancer). This one would actually be a catchy, upright-piano-in-the-family-living-room song (at the Reznors’ house).

“Rooftops,” a slower tempo disco-electronica track sounding as if the band Lit were to cover “Still the Same” by Bob Seger, takes rein of Nightfalls’ rhythm, containing vocal stylings ranging from Gorillaz to Daft Punk describing life post-breakup.

Perhaps a genuine conclusion to the album, “Feels Right,” ultimately either lets it all go for a fit of rebound glory echoing across the bedroom-electronica rock radio stations of America, or finds a different way to look at the relationship and strive forward. Either way, it includes a great breakdown in the bridge, and Midnight Rally’s all in the name, making Nightfalls a genuine electroni-rocket, full story, gated reverb and all—a wonderfully mixed, ’80s rock-influenced dancer (as opposed to a dangerous one).

Find Midnight Rally’s Nightfall across the icons at Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer and iHeartRadio, collectively, at distrokid.com/hyperfollow/midnightrally/nightfalls.

Find more information on gated reverb at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxz6jShW-3E&t=251s.