Midnight Boom

Midnight Boom is the third album by indie rock band The Kills, released on March 10, 2008, through Domino Records (March 17, 2008, in the United States). It was recorded at the Key Club Recording Company in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The title refers to the hours from midnight to 6 a.m., in which the band was at the creative peak, writing material for the album.^[1]

Midnight Boom
Studio album by the Kills
Released	March 10, 2008
Recorded	2007
Studio	Key Club Recording Company
Genre	Indie rock, garage rock
Length	33:57
Label	Domino
Producer	The Kills, XXXChange
The Kills chronology
No Wow (2005) Midnight Boom (2008) Blood Pressures (2011)
Singles from Midnight Boom
"U.R.A. Fever" Released: December 3, 2007 "Cheap and Cheerful" Released: March 3, 2008 "Last Day of Magic" Released: June 15, 2008 "Tape Song" Released: November 16, 2008 "Black Balloon" Released: March 22, 2009

Promotion

"U.R.A. Fever" was released as the lead single from the album on December 3, 2007.^[2] The second single, "Cheap and Cheerful", was released on February 25, 2008.^[3] "Last Day of Magic" was released as the third single on June 15, 2008^[4] Two final singles from the album were "Tape Song", released on November 16, 2008,^[5] and "Black Balloon", released on March 22, 2009.^[6] Both songs have charted in France.

"Sour Cherry" was featured on an episode of the TV series Gossip Girl, and became popular.^[7] "Sour Cherry" was also featured in The House Bunny.^[8] "What New York Used to Be" was used in the film Push.

Commercial performance

Midnight Boom was the band's first album that charted on the Billboard 200 in the U.S., peaking at number 133.^[9] It has also charted at number 16 on the Independent Albums,^[10] number 9 on Top Tastemaker Albums,^[11] and topped the Top Heatseekers Albums chart.^[12] In Europe, it reached number 47 on the UK Albums Chart,^[13] and has also charted in Austria,^[14] Belgium,^[15][16] France,^[17] the Netherlands^[18] and Switzerland.^[19] In 2009. It was awarded a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 30,000 copies throughout Europe.^[20]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	75/100[21]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
The A.V. Club	B[23]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[24]
The Guardian	[25]
Mojo	[26]
MSN Music (Consumer Guide)	A−[27]
Pitchfork	6.8/10[28]
Rolling Stone	[29]
Spin	[30]
Uncut	[31]

The album received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 31 reviews.^[21]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"U.R.A. Fever"	2:16
2.	"Cheap and Cheerful"	2:26
3.	"Tape Song"	3:35
4.	"Getting Down"	2:55
5.	"Last Day of Magic"	3:21
6.	"Hook and Line"	2:03
7.	"Black Balloon"	3:46
8.	"M.E.X.I.C.O."	1:37
9.	"Sour Cherry"	3:07
10.	"Alphabet Pony"	1:45
11.	"What New York Used to Be"	3:15
12.	"Goodnight Bad Morning"	3:52
13.	"Night Train" (UK Download Bonus Track)	3:04

All tracks are written by The Kills.

Personnel

The Kills Alison Mosshart – vocals, guitar, production Jamie Hince – vocals, guitar, drums, percussion, production

Technical personnel[32] Tom Elmhirst – audio engineering, mixing Jason Lader – engineering Jessica Ruffins – engineering Bill Skibbe – engineering Andy Taub – engineering

Charts

Charts (2008)	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[14]	66
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[15]	13
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[16]	70
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[18]	68
French Albums (SNEP)[17]	23
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[19]	56
UK Albums (OCC)[13]	47
US Billboard 200[9]	133
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[12]	1
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[10]	16
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[11]	9