Brooklyn. Friday. Love.

"Brooklyn. Friday. Love."
Single by The Midnight
from the album Heroes
Released	August 3, 2022 (2022-08-03)
Length	3:52
Label	Counter Records
Songwriter(s)	Tim McEwan Tyler Lyle Nikki Flores Royce Whittaker
Producer(s)	Tim McEwan
Heroes track listing
Heroes "Golden Gate" "Brooklyn. Friday. Love." "Heartbeat" "A Place of Her Own" "Heroes" "Heart Worth Breaking" "Loved By You" "Aerostar" "Change Your Heart or Die" "Avalanche" "Souvenir" "Photograph" "Energy Never Dies, It Just Transforms"
The Midnight singles chronology
Avalanche (2022) Brooklyn. Friday. Love. (2022) Heart Worth Breaking (2022)

Brooklyn. Friday. Love. is a song by The Midnight. It is the fourth single and second track from their album Heroes. The single was released on August 3, 2022.

The song was written by band members Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan alongside Nikki Flores and Royce Whittaker. It was produced by McEwan. It has a running time of three minutes and 52 seconds and is in the key of F major. The song has its roots in Lyle's From The Secret Lair project, first appearing on episodes 7 and 25 of season one before being released on Mr. Green's B Sides. A breakdown of the track by McEwan was streamed on Twitch on August 5, 2022.

In an interview with Magnetic Magazine, Lyle elaborated on the song's meaning:

I wrote the initial version of Brooklyn. Friday. Love. in 2016 as a surf rock song while I was living in Ft. Greene. On days when I couldn’t stand staring at my computer screen anymore- usually around 4:00, I would get on a Citibike and ride up Flushing Avenue around the Navy Yard to Williamsburg.

My wife was working long hours at a corporate job in Midtown and usually wasn’t home before 8, so I would walk, well, I would walk and drink Happy Hour bourbon and cokes at Skinny Dennis, and I would look for books at Spoonbill & Sugartown, and vinyl at Rough Trade.

There was a refreshingly weird creative energy that permeated gentrifying Brooklyn that I’d never felt before. It struck me as a kind of weirdo heaven for a kid who grew up in the Bible Belt. When I die I want to go to Skinny Dennis and hear Zydeco or some Bushwick loft party Modular Synth set. Anyway, the place changed.

Apple and Whole Foods soon arrived in Williamsburg and Ft. Greene, the rents went up, the neighbors were no longer starving artist types. My wife and I also grew up- we had a baby and shortly thereafter we decided to end our five year relationship with Brooklyn.

The song became a Midnight song in 2021- two years after I left Brooklyn for Atlanta. I went back to visit New York for the first time during a lull in COVID waves to see my old neighborhood. 1/3 of the businesses were closed. There was more graffiti, and trash piled on the street like I’d never seen it before. I felt like I was seeing the ghost of an old friend. Reworking the song as an idyll to fit The Midnight felt like a way to honor the strangeness and vibrancy of a Brooklyn that seemed to disappear.

Thankfully most of the splendor has returned to the shabby neighborhoods I love, but I’m approaching my late 30s now, with a family and a mortgage and a more predictable life. The thought of drinking absinthe, or staying up past midnight to watch live music, or spending a day writing indie pop songs in an unheated Bushwick squat is unimaginable. This song is about an ideal that may still exist. It just can’t exist for me anymore.

Music video

On August 9, 2022, a music video was announced for Brooklyn. Friday. Love. The video premiered on August 11, 2022. It was directed by Caleb Mallery and filmed at Little Trouble in Atlanta, GA on July 17, 2022.

The video begins with a rainy outside view of a bar, said to be "Somewhere in Brooklyn". The scene moves inside the bar and various patrons are seen congregating on the dance floor in front of a stage. An old CRT TV advertising karaoke with Comtek branding is shown next, and the song begins. A female patron (portrayed by Julia Vasi) steps up to the microphone on stage and begins singing the song. Various happenings of bar patrons are shown, some aligning with the lyrics of the song. After the line "across the bar sat the hip-hip purist", Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan are seen conversing at a table, their only appearance in the video. After the first chorus, a male bar patron (portrayed by Daniel Di Amante) is seen taking a seat at an empty table. As the song progresses, the camera continues to alternate between shots of the TV displaying the song lyrics and patrons beginning to take note of the woman singing on stage. Eventually, everyone begins singing along with the song and they make their way to the dance floor. The man and the woman on stage lock eyes, and begin to dance with each other as the other patrons dance around them as the credits roll, concluding the video.

Track listing

Brooklyn. Friday. Love.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Brooklyn. Friday. Love."	McEwan Lyle Nikki Flores Whittaker	3:52
2.	"Heartbeat"	McEwan Lyle Flores Whittaker	3:50
3.	"Avalanche"	McEwan Lyle Jessie Frye	4:27
4.	"Change Your Heart or Die"	McEwan Lyle	3:31
Total length:			15:40

Lyrics

Day-trader in a tie-dye jumpsuit
And a gutter punk kid with a neck tattoo
Hooking up at the unisex bathroom
It was Brooklyn
it was Friday
it was love

Across the bar sat the hip-hop purist
Arguing with the jazz obscurists
And in the corner were the terrified tourists
Brooklyn. Friday. Love.

Angel choirs on the corner all night
Sing Johnny Cash and Jackson 5
Little heaven you can stumble into
We got your invite tonight

Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday

They come from Mississippi and La La Land
New wave hippies and the pop goth glam
It's just 'cause parents don't understand
It was Brooklyn
It was Friday
It was love

From this roof you can see the stars
We are the left bank dreamers
And the avant garde
I'll sing my borrowed song on your borrowed guitar
It was Brooklyn
It was Friday
It was love

Angel choirs on the midnight G train
Some Beastie Boys and Kurt Cobain
Revolution you can learn to dance to
With a friendly face on the way

Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday

Bushwick Avenue
Bedford Avenue
Franklin Avenue
I'm on my way
Where are you

Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday

Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Don't try to fight it
Oh, it's just Brooklyn on a Friday

It's just Brooklyn on a Friday
It's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Bushwick Avenue
It's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Bedford Avenue
It's just Brooklyn on a Friday
Franklin Avenue
It's just Brooklyn on a Friday
I'm on my way
It's just Brooklyn on a Friday

Official versions and other media

Brooklyn. Friday. Love.

from Heroes

Brooklyn. Friday. Love. - Instrumental

from Heroes (& Instrumentals)

(Official Karaoke Version)

References

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