Originally posted in Trollheart's Listening List, December 16 2015
Title: Sun Leads Me On
Artist: Half Moon Run
Year 2015
Nationality: Canadian
Familiarity: 100%. Loved their debut.
Genre: Indie Rock/Pop
2
Expectations: Dark Eyes was an amazing album, a real discovery for me in 2012. It's often hard to capitalise on that success, though again, Half Moon Run weren't exactly winning Grammys or topping charts with it, so perhaps they can unobtrusively slip in a small hand grenade disguised as a pineapple here and upset the whole fruit cart? I certainly hope it lives up to the promise of the debut, and I'm a little more than cautiously optimistic.
1. Warmest Regards: A really gentle laidback start, puts me so much in mind of the APP with some Beatles and Bread thrown in there. I love this guy's voice. Almost dreampop at times mixed with a kind of folky feeling; just makes you want to smile.
2. I Can't Figure Out What's Going On: Touches of CSNY here with a great run (sorry) on the piano, then it kicks off on a lovely upbeat melody with super vocal harmonies, one of the things Half Moon Run are becoming known for. If I felt like smiling and relaxing for the first track, I feel like dancing for this one (don't worry, I won't: I wouldn't subject anyone to that!)
Crazy little guitar solo.
3. Consider Yourself:Real sense of rockabilly meets acoustic Springsteen about this, probably the rockiest track so far. Great bass run, though it does sound like a sped-up version of The Boss's “State Trooper”...
4. Hands in the Garden: A more uptempo song, with a real upbeat feeling. Great vocal line and in particular a fantastic sort of echoey group vocal before a harmonica cuts in and takes the song to another level. Superb.
5. Turn Your Love: Great peppy keyboard line here on another uptempo track; kind of gives me a feeling of China Crisis in parts, also Deacon Blue. Really explodes into life in the middle. Drops then to single piano and drum hits for the last minute or so. Bit odd, after all the exuberance and somewhat a low-key ending: I'd even venture to suggest the last minute could have been cut out, as it really adds nothing to the song. Hmm. I'd consider dropping the rating to Orange but ... naaahhhhh!
6. Narrow Margins: Talk about introspectiv --- oh. Just took a slightly more uptempo turn. Is that vibraphone? More wonderful vocal harmonies. Could be violin there, or, possibly, steel guitar. Lovely, either way. Rippling piano running through this like a soft river.
7. Sun Leads Me On: This is very Eagles/CSNY with a great guitar line and a gentle, bittersweet theme; love the way his voice hits the slightly higher registers on the end of the verse lines. Like the best of the seventies West Coast singers. Superb.
8. It Works Itself Out: Slowburner that really hits its stride in the second minute and really never looks back. Real vocal histrionics from Devon I assume, unless Conner can reach those notes!
9. Everybody Wants: This is just beauty in simplicity. The yearning in the song, the simple message, the sense of wanting to belong. Just amazing. Gorgeous lush organ line running through it and some of the best vocal work I've heard on the album, which is saying something.
10. Throes: Fifty-four seconds of blissful piano Heaven.
11. Devil May Care: Cool little folk ditty
12. The Debt: Holy crap, another Blue! Yeah, this blues-based ballad is just another that deserves that rating. Incredible. This is the kind of song that can make you cry. Pussy. What? No, no: it's just a bit of grit in my eye....
13. Trust: And a great boppy almost new-wave rocker to close it out. Wonderful. Wipe those tears away and shake that booty. Unless you're me, in which case do not under any circumstances shake what you laughingly call a booty!
Final result: A triumphant followup to
Dark Eyes, and makes me remember why I enthused so much about these guys the first time. A next-to-perfect collection of songs to satisfy anyone really, and with any luck Half Moon Run will soon be a name spoken of in other than hushed whispers and the word “Who?”
Rating: 9.8/10