Moonspeak - Nowanights

 

Stockholm's Robert Jallinder offers up Moonspeak's wonderful debut album. On I Don't Hear A Single, we've been used to Sweden providing chiming chirpy poptastic affairs. Don't expect any of that here. This is an incredibly deep reflective album, but the pop does burst out when it can,

Nowanights sounds quite melancholic, but that may be because Jallinder's vocal lends itself more to that. There are some incredible arrangements and unexpected twists across the ten songs, but the feel is very UK Indie Rock, even if it is difficult to pin down exactly what. 

Moody is definitely the word to be used, but splendidly so. The opener, Frozen Fountain falls somewhere between prime time Radiohead with a vocal alternating between Thom Yorke and Mike Peters. Yet, December Stars has a big Brit Pop chorus.

Necessity Says could be Chris Rea until it breaks out into a cracking synth driven chorus. Escape Velocity could easily be early Elbow. Common Ground is probably the killer song here, certainly the most commercial. The vocal drawl is teased out by the cheesy 80's synth sound. 

However the most interesting songs are those that benefit from the big arrangements. Missing Things being the best example, closely followed by the aforementioned Frozen Fountain. Indeed these songs overshadow the stripped down numbers, great though they are.

Nowanights reminds me a lot of those early 00's UK Indie albums, even Snow Patrol. We don't hear this sort of alblum much these days, perhaps that's why I like it so much. An album to be listened to, rather than to sing along with and there's no harm in that.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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