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From The Floppy Disk
America Online
"America Online" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by The Midnight | ||||
from the album Monsters | ||||
Released | May 13, 2019 | |||
Length | 5:49 | |||
Label | Counter Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Tim McEwan | |||
Monsters track listing | ||||
Monsters | ||||
The Midnight singles chronology | ||||
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America Online[1] is a song by The Midnight. It is the first single and second track from their album Monsters. The single was released on May 13, 2019.[2]
The song was written by band members Tim McEwan and Tyler Lyle and produced by McEwan. It has a running time of five minutes and 49 seconds and is in the key of B minor.
During a tour stop in the Spring 2019 Tour about a month before the single's release, the band talked with NewRetroWave about America Online:[3]In an interview with Magnetic Magazine after the release of Monsters, The Midnight further stated:[4]As a kid you’re sort of [disconnected] from the world… But when you’re in your teenage years, everything is sort of inner-conflict, relationships, all happening at once. The tensions of romantic love, acceptance in groups and things like that. …it’s not a sunset right? It’s more of a sort of blog track. I love going on vaporwave track playlists on youtube. I love the low-grade, low-fi, bitcrushed sound – it’s like that but with a bit more of a cleaner palette, a cleaner mix. So, that one will set the tone. Tyler is definitely on it, but in a bit more of a…vocodery way.
Tim: This sets the tone for our album. We’re in the era of connectivity. Gone are the days of being a kid, riding around on bikes, exploring the world around you. You’re a teen now and your nights are spent online in your bedroom, logged onto chat rooms, while the door to your parents is shut and you are searching for your own identity.
Tyler: This track was basically done and we’d decided to do it as an instrumental, but at the last minute I decided to try and write something. By that time we knew what the album was about roughly. This became the premise of the record- is love necessarily reciprocal- is hate? What is intimacy without proximity? Are we really connected at the bottom of all of this, especially when “all of this” is mediated by so many layers that seem un-human.
According to McEwan, the synth used in the opening of America Online is Serum with EchoMelt 2 added to get the uneven tape jitter effect.[5] The vocoder used is a mix of VocalSynth 2 from iZotope and BitSpeek.
The date on the single artwork for America Online is August 6, 1991, which is the day the world's first website was published by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.[6][7]
Lyrics
If I love you, will you love me?
If I want you, will you want me?
I’m reaching, are you reaching out?
If I touch you, will you touch me now?
Through the wires to the heart
Phantom fingers fumble in the dark
I thought I did; I felt a spark
Are we all one beating heart?
If I love you, will you love me?
If I hurt you, will you hurt me?
I’m reaching, are you reaching out?
If I touch you, will you touch me now?
Through the wires to the heart
Phantom fingers fumble in the dark
I thought I did; I felt a spark
Are we all one beating heart?
Or are we strangers?
Am I a stranger?
Lyrics source[2]
Official versions
References
- ↑ "America Online | The Midnight". Bandcamp. July 10, 2020. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "America Online | The Midnight". Bandcamp. May 3, 2019. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ Zistler, Andrew (April 5, 2019). "The Midnight Talk Tour and Reveal New Single - America Online - NewRetroWave - Stay Retro! | Live The 80's Dream!". NewRetroWave. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ Middleton, Ryan (July 10, 2020). "The Director's Cut: The Midnight - MONSTERS - Magnetic Magazine". Magnetic Magazine. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ "We are The Midnight and we're playing Electric Forest for the first time. Ask us Anything! : ElectricForest". Reddit. May 21, 2019. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ Nix, Elizabeth (August 4, 2016). "The World's First Web Site - HISTORY". HISTORY. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- ↑ "info.cern.ch". CERN. August 6, 1991. Archived from the original on April 15, 2022. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
News
You've Got Mail!
- 29th October, 2024
- Tour - The Midnight are announced as part of the lineup for the 2025 Tecate Pal Norte music festival in Monterrey, Mexico. The Midnight will perform on April 4, the first day of the festival.
- 18th October, 2024
- Tour - The Chrome Nights North American Tour concludes in Denver.
- 4th October, 2024
- Music - The Midnight's remix of Lost And Found by Chromeo is released. The remix is included on the deluxe edition of Chromeo's album Adult Contemporary.
- 1st October, 2024
- Merch - The Midnight: Shadows graphic novel is released.
- 6th September, 2024
- Music - Chariot is released as a single.
- 5th September, 2024
- Tour - The Chrome Nights North American Tour begins in Vancouver.
- 15th July, 2024
- Music - Days of Thunder was released 10 years ago on this day. Happy 10th anniversary to The Midnight!
- 18th June, 2024
- Tour - A London show has been added to the Summer 2024 EU/UK Tour. The show will be at Electric Ballroom on July 22.
Now Playing
Did You Know?
- ...that Dance With Somebody was once in a different key and had a guitar solo instead of a sax solo?
- ...that touring member Lelia Broussard was on the US version of singing competition The Voice?
- ...that Tim McEwan co-wrote and produced a song for New Kids On The Block?
- ...that Nighthawks and Lonely City were once one combined song?
- ...that the voice in the intro of River of Darkness is from a guy named Eric?
- ...that for five years Comet was nothing more than a small snippet on Facebook before finally being released in 2021?
- ...that planning for The Midnight's graphic novel Shadows began in 2020, four years before its release?
- ...that The Midnight have performed more live shows at The Independent in San Francisco than any other venue?
- ...that The Midnight played 77 shows in 2019, which is the most in one year since they began touring?
- ...that The Midnight's first live concert was at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco in July 2017?