The Moshville Times - Album Review: Million Moons

There’s nothing better than when you discover a new band. It could be the opening act that you catch by accident, the band you stumble upon in the depths of a playlist, or the band you listen to while doing your homework for a festival and they resonate so deeply with you and your music taste that you become obsessed. That’s how I discovered Million Moons and their albums built around heavy concepts like the experience of Alzheimer’s disease (A Gap in the Clouds) or a fateful polar expedition (I May Be Some Time). With each of their songs and albums the band crafts cinematic soundscapes, telling a story and conveying raw emotion and feeling in ways that mere words never could, making music that is a truly stunning work of instrumental post-rock.

Centred on the concept of consciousness, on new album You Be Good, I Love You the band is inviting listeners to reflect on the nature of consciousness other than our own as humans. Never let it be said these guys want an easy life. The songs on this record sound bigger than on their previous records, potentially due to the addition of church organs and saxophones along the way, adding to the band’s arsenal of guitar, percussion and keys.

The fact they’ve been continuing to grow as a band and playing shows around the world to increasingly bigger audiences – from Offside Festival in China to Ripcord Fest in Glasgow – playing and learning alongside acts like Maybeshewill, Overhead The Albatross, Hundred Year Old Man and many others also can’t have hurt when they came to writing this record. It could also be that this time around they don’t seem to have held back anything, with the majority of the songs being allowed to build for as long as it takes and go in any direction needed. It’s not just post-rock here, there’s shoegaze, some doom, and straight-up metal in the mix as well.

The anxiety-ridden opening track “Titan of the Deep” feels like something Ahab could have written; it has a bit of a weighty doom vibe to it. It sounds like danger, like you’re in danger but can’t really be sure where it’s coming from. There are glimmers of light as the song shifts from the dread of the pummelling percussion to the lighter more hopeful keys, before the song builds to a crescendo of noise that leaves you feeling not quite sure if your impending danger has passed or not.

The second song “Last Days Together” was born out of the loss of guitarist/composer Edward Thompson’s Labrador. The music feels both mournful and euphoric, and comes across like a release of emotions; terribly sad but also overwhelming joy. Heartbreak for the loss but being thankful for the memories and the good times. These feelings are pretty universal, but being able to bottle them and convey them in music is quite something when you think about it.

“Black Sun Rising” is one of the highlights on the album for me, it builds slowly and gently around a piano, building itself up and up before eventually the percussion and shimmering guitars take it to new unknown heights before it gets away forever and the song is free beyond containment. “Thundering Footsteps”, true to its name, sounds absolutely massive thanks to the percussion which doesn’t let up from the first few notes of the song. The song feels like bearing witness to a wild herd on the loose, if you close your eyes while the song pounds away, you can see thousands of four-legged animals storm past in the heat as a warm dust spins around you.

As with everything Million Moons do, You Be Good, I Love You is built on emotion, but “Secret Histories” for some reason hits even harder. The song feels built for cinema, to be played over a scene of a dying world or an exploding sun. It grows and swells as they wring every drop possible from the instruments, and in turn the listener. It’s what Million Moons are capable of, after over half an album they can still draw out new emotion, depth, and feeling from everyone involved.

After you’ve got through that comes “Memories of a Past Life”, which is my personal favourite track on the record. It’s where the saxophone comes into the mix, and we’re not talking saxophone for the sake of it either. It’s not overplayed, it doesn’t drown the song out, it just goes about its business adding so much. Playing alongside the piano, luring you in and offering something nice and gentle before the ante is upped, and then upped again, as it all leads to a howling and crushing finale. The guys have absolutely nailed it on this song.

“Echoes in the Abyss” feels vast, the church organ a haunting addition that adds to the feeling that you’re standing in front of a never-ending void and staring in. Finally, the album comes to a close with “Floating for Eternity”, an amazing end to the album but one I feel like to talk about it would be to ruin its magic. I’ll keep it simple; it’s a beautiful piece of music that is true to its name.

With their third album, Million Moons have continued to build their (already vast) sound and pushed their boundaries as far as possible. The result is easily their best release yet, the deepest, most accomplished, and most well-rounded. It’s one that any fan of post-rock/post-metal will find themselves coming back to over and over again. As if that wasn’t enough, the band are hitting the road in support of the record (dates below). If you’re in Glasgow, they’re playing Bloc+ for a total of £0.00. That’s right, a gig by one of the best rising bands in the scene who will by that point have put out one of the post-releases of the year, all for absolutely nothing. That is absolutely wild in this day and age. You would actually be mad to miss it; you literally cannot lose on it. Give the album a listen or two, get yourself down to a show, buy a t-shirt and a copy of the record, and marvel at your new favourite band in Million Moons.

Upcoming tour dates: