“Midnight, Briefly” is the debut single by Blue Sinclair and the first chapter of his musical journey. He arrived with questions, half-packed bags, and a city that never allowed you to sleep. This moment in your twenties evokes a feeling that everything is temporary and at the same time feels like everything is permanent. His album artwork is an image of condensation on your drink from a cold glass of beer—the feeling you have in your chest, the static in your body, the feeling of your feet on the concrete, the remnants of something that you haven’t yet fully burned away.

Based out of New York City, Blue Sinclair is a solo artist and songwriter-producer working at the crossroads of alternative pop, electronic pop, and R&B atmospheres. All of the music is written and produced by him, and it shows the independence of the project. There’s no filter in his artistry, and his music plays like an internal monologue that is at times confident, sometimes falling apart, and always truthful.

Narratively speaking, Midnight, Briefly: First Chapter serves as an introduction to the album, presenting a missed connection—the prolonged gaze, the moment that slips away. This event represents the inciting incident of the Hero’s Journey: an awakening of desires, a breakup with a present identity.

Through the eight tracks, Blue chronicles his life in a new city, experiencing romance, capitalism, vanity, nostalgia, and indecision, creating an intimate yet editorially sharp perspective of the world around him. The genre lines blur, purposely creating confusion.

The visuals enhance the emotional language used in the music. The cover art, photographed by Michael Benabib, pays homage to Marianne Faithfull’s Broken English with a nod to emotional risk and sonic independence. Mixing and mastering performed by Furkan Gülüs gives the work its final polish, but does not smooth out the rough edges; you can still hear the room, his breath, and the static.

This project represents an individual creation without any feelings of loneliness. It opens the listener into the fatty parts of the music—the pauses we try to cut from the final edit. As Blue Sinclair states, this work has been an exercise in vulnerability, but has now become an exercise in pride. Midnight, Briefly does not pursue certainty, but rather documents the search for it. At 2 a.m., anyone attempting to find themselves can connect with this work on an innate level.