It's a New Day Tonight

Michael Rault's second full-length, It's A New Day Tonight, has its home in the darkness, like much rock and roll—many of its songs look at nocturnal activities, particularly sleep. "Sleeping and dreaming were attractive concepts," says Rault. "I was looking for an escape from a lot of frustrating and dissatisfying conditions in my day-to-day life." As he was working on It’s A New Day Tonight's songwriting, Rault kept entering the orbit of Wayne Gordon, producer and head engineer at Brooklyn's legendary Daptone studio—first through opening stints for the late firebrand Charles Bradley, then while on tour with Aussie shredders King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The album has the loose-limbed feel of a lost album by '70s bands that bridged the gap between folk-rock's open-hearted strumming and power pop's crisp, melody-forward confections—Wings, Badfinger, Big Star, 10cc—yet possesses an energy shot through with 21st-century optimism.

It’s too bad Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks already called their album Sparkle Hard earlier this year, because that simple little phrase would work well as the name of Michael Rault’s sophomore effort.

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Michael Rault’s dream-weaving folk-rock fuses his friendly grasp of the genre’s past and present stylings seamlessly on It’s a New Day Tonight.

Taking its title from a pre-game interview with a hockey player after a bad night, Montreal-based Michael Rault's second full-length (and debut, in the U.S., for Daptone's rock-oriented imprint) is a paean to nocturnal renewal, and many of its songs reference sleep.

If you're satisfied with songs chiming happily in your brain then Michael Rault's new album 'A New Day Tonight' is passable.

Michael Rault takes vintage rock back to school in our review of 'It's A New Day Tonight'