Five years into their reign and with two already mammoth, game-changing albums behind them, Northampton’s premium alternative indie rock band, The Moons, have returned to the scene with the psychedelic-influenced Mindwaves.
Mindwaves opens with the rip-roaring Luna; a simple track creating the effect of dire hunger and an accentuating, blood-thirsty craving to find the heart of this album.
Leading on from this is Society and the peculiarly bemusing track titled Body Snatchers. Society itself is a bold nod towards the swinging sixties; incorporating sliding guitars with the dragged out, snarling vocal of front man Andy Crofts. This seems to be the calm before the storm as Body Snatchers bursts into progressive drum beats and an eerie sense of foreboding. Throw in the spine-chilling keyboard and the wicked twists and turns which Body Snatchers takes; and we have a recipe for arguably, one of the best tracks The Moons can use to fire themselves directly into the mainstream.
It’s on fifth track Vertigo that the listener can finally fully immerse themselves into the newly-improved, more mature Moons sound. Although the first half of the album is quick to set the pace and tone, Vertigo relies purely on the powerful passion radiating from Croft’s vocal to make an almighty impact. “A little burst of turbulence” Croft coos in almost a speaking voice before the track swirls off into a psychedelic spiral.
To pin-point where this album stands in terms of genre is near impossible. Heart and Soul uses trumpets to create the epitome of cool, compared to the emotion doused Sometimes, which flips to the contrastingly darker Rage And Romance (the opening riff of the latter is a vague pointer to Kasabian’s ‘L.S.F’) making every track on Mindwaves completely fresh, new and exciting. Rage and Romance uses a violin solo to seal the deal of this album by pronouncing that this track is something special and a serious talking point for the future generation when they look back on The Moons’ legacy.
To put it briefly; The Moons’ third album is a strengthening machine which progresses and dives into so many directions and dips into a range of genres; making it the most exciting release the lads from Northampton have ever had the pleasure of delivering. I sense its one of the best albums of 2014 based on innovation and daring themes.
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