The music that has come out over the last seven months has truly been the saving grace of what has been and continues to be an overwhelming year. Whether it be Lil Baby’s emotional rally cry with The Bigger Picture, Taylor Swift’s imaginative, poignant mind going into overdrive during isolation with the creation of folklore and so many more- so much of the smoke and mirrors have been stripped away. It is a time to be introspective. It is a time to be human. Nightly, an electro/alternative pop band based out of Nashville, released their highly anticipated debut album, appropriately titled night, love you, this past Friday and they have done just that. 

The band consists of cousins Jonathan Capeci and Joey Baretta on lead vocals and guitar/keys respectively along with their friend Nicholas Sainato on drums. Capeci and Baretta, originally from the Philly area, worked together in a now-defunct band called Dinner And A Suit and would eventually join together with Sainato to form Nightly, a shortened form of the phrase and their debut album title “night, love you”. Early on, the trio had yet to develop much of a discography but were given the opportunity to open for the likes of Ke$ha, The All-American Rejects and NF. 

Over the last few years, the band, despite label disputes, has produced a steady stream of EP’s and have continued to tour, both as an opening and headline act. But now, here we are. It’s almost 2021, but the album is finally out.   

The 14-track LP is just shy of 40 minutes and is, of course, all new material, but there are some small threads connected to older work. “summer”, one of the singles, includes the lyric, “I always write about how you moved to LA, I think about it more than I should say,” which is a clear nod to their 2019 breakout single “Twenty Something” where Capeci sings “If you decided that you don’t want to say I won’t try and stop you from moving to LA.” You almost wonder if a little reunion occurred between Capeci and this mystery girl during the band’s tour stop in LA earlier this year. “Twenty Something” is referenced in the song “mess in my head” with the line “Now it feels strange even when we’re in the same room, when I sing ‘Twenty Something’ I still think about you”, indicating that this relationship has, whether for better or worse, stood the test of time. 

It’s hard to know for sure, but the interludes on this record appear to be very much inspired by, or are, at the very least, very similar to, that of ones found on Coldplay’s ”Ghost Stories” record. “(howitfeels)” is a continuation of the funky “you should probably just hang up” that eventually, though not perfectly, transitions into the simple yet stellar “not like you” while “older” beautifully transitions into “turnpike” and then into “so sly”. Details like that might not mean a lot to everyone, but little things like that really help tell the story in the way it is meant to be told. 

All those minor things aside, this record is full of emotional depth and shows an overwhelming amount of maturity (you won’t find a lot of “I love you but I gotta let go, XO” here). Justin Bieber has done it multiple times, most recently on his new single “Lonely”, but it’s so rare to hear a male openly sing about the ups and downs of his emotional and mental state. Capeci does this throughout the record, really pulling the curtain back to displaying the wear and tear that the relationship had on him and how it may have made him a little bipolar. In “mess in my head” he essentially goes from “let’s talk about this” to “I could walk away” to “I still need you” in a matter of moments. The foggy acoustic outro to that song is very telling, as it shows just how confused he was by the whole situation. 

Then in “so sly”, he’s calmed down a little bit. He sees things a little clearer; “You manipulate my mental health, seems like you’ve become somebody else”. He definitively says “I’m over you, you bled me out” but in the next two tracks, “lose a friend”, where now HE is making HER cry instead of the other way around, and “the movies”, we’re back to the part of him that’s just trying to grasp for whatever is left. It’s such a familiar cycle, because we all do it. It’s so raw. It’s so human. 

“time online” deviates from the on-again, off-again romance and explores how the relationship so many of us have with social media is such a double-edged sword. It’s great because he can share special moments with fans and from shows but on the other end of the spectrum; “I get a little inside my head and I don’t know why. Feeling like I might as well be dead, it’s fine.” 

 “older” is a snapshot of where Capeci’s is in life right now and it is an absolute doozy. He referenced going through a quarter-life crisis on “time online” and doubles back on that here, questioning whether he should be married already like his dad was at his current age, but the real beef of the song is in the second verse.

The band’s label disputes from last year clearly took a toll as he admits he “almost threw in the towel,” but was eventually able to put it all into perspective: “then I remembered the girl from Rhode Island who said that our music saved her life.” He references his faith as well, which, if you’ve met him, you know that, like his heart, he wears on his sleeve; “I’m not a saint, but I still talk to Jesus. I hope He knows that I really mean it.” Though he sings, “I’m no good at getting older,” it’s clear that he is. This song proves that, no matter how hard things get, these guys know how to process and comprehend the responsibility that comes with their position in the public. 

Despite all the fun driving tunes and the emotional awareness, this album is not without its druthers. “the car” is below par, at least for them, and the vocal production on “time online” is distracting, slipping in and out of an Imogen Heap-type effect with no context or purpose. The vocal effects are used much more effectively on the fantastic closing track “I got so much to tell you”, which, again, sounds like something out of Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories”, particularly the song “Midnight”. 

Overall, this is a solid debut record. If you don’t know them already, you’ll melt into your seat listening to Capeci’s warm, buttery voice for the first time, and if you do know them, you’ll feel more connected to them than you ever have before. The stories presented here are things we all go through in some form or fashion, but this record is a reminder that it’s ok to allow yourself to feel, and to feel deeply. To allow yourself to cry, to question yourself and to put yourself first but to ultimately continue loving someone if that’s what your heart tells you to do. So, thank you boys. I think that’s pretty beautiful. 

You can stream night, love you out now wherever you stream music.