Dark Eyes [LP]

by Half Moon Run

Overview

Richly detailed, alternately rugged and studio slick, the airy and expressive debut album from Montreal's Half Moon Run is caught somewhere between the pastoral, harmony-laden northwoods folk of Fleet Foxes, the hazy classic rock meanderings of Band of Horses, and the soulful midnight din of Alt-J and Jeff Buckley. Formed via a craigslist ad, the band's internal anonymity is hardly relative with regard to its cohesiveness, as each track on the brainy yet intuitive Dark Eyes sounds like the sum of its parts, but there is enough space between those parts to suggest a sort of unspoken agreement to avoid any sort of showboating. This predilection for musical mindfulness is best exemplified by album opener "Full Circle," a carefully tiered, slow-burn brooder that churns along like a river swollen with menace, and then manages to explode without any sort of real violence. The effect is surprisingly and elegantly dramatic, and when Half Moon Run mine this particular cadence, as they do on standout cuts like "No More Losing the War," "Fire Escape," and "Give Up," the latter of which sounds like it morphed out of the early moments of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android," they cast a spell that can prove difficult to break free of. That elegance is retained on more mellifluous offerings like the breezy "Call Me in the Afternoon" and the multi-layered, electro-pop-kissed closer, "21 Gun Salute," both of which lean harder toward the Alt-J side of the equation, but they lack the command of atmosphere and sense of purpose that drive the darker numbers. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	07/23/2013
Label:	Glassnote Entertainment Group / Island
UPC:	0810599020019
Rank:	46742

Tracks

1. Full Circle
2. Call Me in the Afternoon
3. No More Losing the War
4. She Wants to Know
5. Need It
6. Give Up
7. Judgement
8. Unofferable
9. Drug You
10. Nerve
11. Fire Escape
12. 21 Gun Salute

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Half Moon Run   Primary Artist
Tosca String Quartet   Strings
Brigitte Dajczer   Violin
Thomas Chartre   Cello
Conner Molander   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards
Devon Portielje   Drums,Guitar,Vocals
Dylan Phillips   Drums,Vocals,Keyboards
Thomas Charite   Cello
Babette Hayward   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Jim Eno   Recording,Engineer,Producer
Ruadhri Cushnan   Mixing
Shawn Cole   Engineer
Daniel Lagace   Engineer,Producer,Recording
Chris Shaw   Mixing
Vlado Meller   Mastering Engineer
Ryan Morey   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
Nygel Asselin   Engineer,Producer
Half Moon Run   Composer,Producer
Jonathan M. Fox   Composer
Tim Georgeson   Art Direction,Photography,Concept
Conner Molander   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Devon Portielje   Composer,Engineer,Producer,Group Member
Dylan Phillips   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Isaac Symonds   Composer
Matthew Joycey   Assistant
Chris Russell   Assistant Engineer
Scott Ord   Assistant Engineer
Sean McLean Carrie   Assistant Engineer
Layne Frank   Assistant Engineer
James Peter Watkins   Assistant Engineer
Chris Saw   Mixing