Half Moon Run – Dark Eyes (2012)

The British Summer Time concerts in London have a great concept. Basically, how they work is they get one big name to perform and then they gather a bunch of other similar acts around that artist to form a one day festival. I was there some years ago when Neil Young was booked as the headliner and supporting him were bands like The National, Phosphorescent, Lucy Rose, Caitlin Rose etc. One of the first bands of the day was Canadian Half Moon Run. I did my research quite well beforehand and I really liked Half Moon Run's folk influenced indie rock. Some of the songs are maybe slightly too produced, but otherwise the music is great. It somehow reminds me of Radiohead in places. When the band played live, I already knew quite a few of their songs, it was sunny outside and I just have a very positive memory of that gig.



When I had just moved to London, I felt like I was surrounded by all this great new music that I couldn't have discovered back in Finland. That's not entirely true, since I definitely could have discovered the same things in Finland, but I just felt like in London, whatever the genre you're listening to, there were so many others who were interested in that kind of music so it was more accessible. Record shops here make great curated lists, pretty much all the bands do gigs here and even radio plays a more varied set of bands. I found a bunch of new bands that go into the category of  indie folk around that time, including Half Moon Run.

The album starts with the first single of the album, Full Circle. This song is almost like progressive folk, since while the instruments are quite folky, there are interesting rhythms in the song and the vocal rhythms are definitely also not very conventional. I really like the chiming electric guitars that come in after the start of the song. Call Me In the Afternoon sounds a bit too mainstream to my ears now that I listen to it, but there are some great drum rhythms at least which I like. No More Losing the War is a first ballad and it has some excellent melancholic melodies. There's a sense of fireplace music in the song. She Wants to Know is a bit more modern song with echoey vocals and amazingly dark guitar lines. It reminds me of the first album by The Temper Trap, whom I had met similarly as a result of a festival only couple of years earlier. Need It changes the intensity of the album slightly. It's a jazzy ballad song with some excellent guitars. Give Up sounds like a lost track from Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. If I just heard this on the radio without knowing what it is, I could easily confuse it with a Radiohead song. Judgement changes the intensity again quite a bit and there is actually some jumping grooviness in the song. Unofferable tones the tempo down again and the song starts with raw overdriven electric guitars that carry most of the song with echoey and high-pitched vocals. Drug You has some catchy electric guitar loops that provide the basis for this pounding song. There are interesting vocal loops in the song as well. Nerve sounds a bit more like many other modern indie bands. The bass lines and high vocal gimmicks together with the groovy beat makes it sound a bit cheesy and mainstream. Fire Escape is one of my favourite songs on the album. It starts beautifully with picked clean electric guitars and the vocals sound exceptionally pure when they come in. The album ends with 21 Gun Salute, which has some electronic drum samples along with soft synth sounds. Many great indie bands have more recently been ruined by going this way with their subsequent albums. I haven't really listened to later albums by Half Moon Run, but I hope this is not what they went for.

I don't think I've checked any music videos by the band before now. The video for Full Circle has been beautifully made. It shows the band with their friends at a cottage in the middle of the winter playing their music and making food and laughing. So, in terms of storyline, there's not that much there, but the way it's been shot is beautiful. It's also nice to see the band perform their songs.

Like many other bands around that time, Half Moon Run also uses some influences from post-rock era and the clear electric guitars are not used in a conventional rock way but rather as background loops.The vocals are sung really beautifully. They have quite a lot of echo, but it fits the style of the music and I like the slightly raspy high vocals.

I don't really have that many expectations for this band in the future. I haven't even listened to their other albums. I'm afraid it might ruin them for me. But then again, I think I should at least once try and listen to the other albums, since I might be proven wrong and the band has actually stayed in the more analog sounds. That remains to be seen. For now, I can just keep enjoying the debut album that relates quite strongly to my first years living in London.

Listen to the album on Spotify.