This is a review of Maggie Reilly's album Midnight Sun.  Few years ago it was selected as Maggie's best ever album in Jessica's poll.  You might still find it in a record shop if you are lucky.     For technical data see Angel Tears by Merciful Squirrel.
Midnight Sun is very similar to Echoes.  More pop songs with good beat.  Some differences can be found, however.   There are no more those expressive bass lines.   What you hear contains more synthesizers even if there are three guys with guitars on board.  The synth sounds are well balanced with their context.  I think, the song melodies are sometimes even better than in Echoes.

It's interesting that two songs exploit the very same melody producing very different results.  Oh My Heart (4) is peacefully and softly sad song of longing, while All My Heart Can Hold (12) describes the nervous anxiety right after some relationship catastrophe.

Another must-know fact is that Every Single Heartbeat intro deliberately takes exactly one minute.  This is a happy song of closeness and love with a rapid tempo.

The title song Follow The Midnight Sun is build of long slow sounds, vast spacious reverb and some imitated bagpipes.  Sounds easy, but if there were some mediocre singer swaying nearby the right pitch, it would be unbearable.  No problems with Maggie.  By the way, I sometimes wonder, why do the Scots think they live far in the north ;-)

Angel Tears is my top favorite in this album.  It has the traditional A-B-A structure starting with slow and moody part A with flute-like synths and slightly irregular percussions.  Soon it takes better speed turning into part B with guitars.  Listen, how Maggie starts the line "Falling down across...".  She wakes up a faint resonance in the recording system, which gives an instrument-like tint to her voice.  The sensation is exciting, when the part B fades away and final part A slides from back to front: the slow and moody tunes again.

Don't Wanna Lose is the reggae-like song on this album.  The bass line is not as self-confident and the bass does not go as low as in Only a Fool (Echoes).  But it still is a good bass line.  The song itself is just great.

If you need some comfort or encouragement, just listen to Once In A While.

The reverb is again used to create a spacious soundscape.  Besides beautiful voice, Maggie has the ability to sing long intervals effortlessly and catch the next pitch accurately right from the beginning.  She can sing like an instrument.  This makes it possible to compose complicated melodies with long and odd intervals.  You'll never hear most of these songs in a karaoke bar.  Still, Maggie makes it sound easy.  But these songs should be classified as "do not try this at home!"
Midnight Sun was published in 1993.  This review was written in Midsummer of 2004.

Jessica used to run a Maggie Reilly fan site before and around around 2000. Once she had a poll of simply which of Maggie's albums is the best.  Midnight Sun was the winner.  Unfortunately, her website has been closed for a few years and I'm afraid she will no more come back.  I hope she is happy wherever she may roam.   But  fortunately, Merciful Squirrel is running similar poll at Angel Tears.

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