While recorded by Duncan in the same bedroom studio as his previous album, Architect (2015), as well as having the same baroque pop sound, The Midnight Sun has a more polished sound due to Duncan upgrading his studio, contains more electronic music elements, is more consistent stylistically, and has a darker tone and atmosphere inspired by Rod Serling's television The Twilight Zone.

[2] Duncan initially planned for his second record to be a Burt Bacharach-esque easy listening album, where he used a more professional studio and hired a string quartet.

[9] However, The Midnight Sun has a more polished sound due to Duncan upgrading the studio after completing Architect,[4] is more electronic[10] as it incorporates more synthesizers,[5] includes more tinges of contemporary jazz,[11] and features more complex percussion.

[12] The Midnight Sun was inspired by the atmosphere and format of Rod Serling's television The Twilight Zone, which is why the album is titled after the tenth episode of the show's third season.

[4] This departed from his previous album Architect (2015), which mixed together elements from a bunch of genres[4] and, to Duncan, felt like a "collection of songs" rather than an actual LP.

"[7] "Jupiter," in Duncan's word, is a "romanticised" version of a "strange" experience he had in a gay boat party he went to after performing in Hamburg in 2015; he called it "a euphoric song, yet slimy and unnerving.

[16] On 11 October 2016, PopMatters premiered a video of a live performance of "Do I Hear" by Duncan and his backing band at the Cottiers venue in Glasgow, filmed by Plumb and Ben Cox.

[19] The Midnight Sun was generally praised by critics,[22] numerous reviewers spotlighting the album's huge detail in the sound design and composition.

"[31] musicOMH praised the LP for being "carefully and painstakingly thought out" like Architect while making this task sound "effortless,"[27] and Rodríguez wrote that it has "an asset that allows [Duncan] to interlace all kinds of sonic and tangible elements without dismissing his prominent folk leanings.

"[12] The Guardian claimed The Midnight Sun had "a spirituality that, in a year of bold musical statements and political upheaval, provides a soothing tonic; an escapist episode of spectacular beauty.

"[26] A mixed review by Billy Hamilton of Under the Radar found the tracks to only be "subtle variations of the same song," opining the album was mostly "lush and immersive" and little else.