The Moons - Life On Earth Album Review

Album Review of Life on Earth by The Moons, Released March 15th on Acid Jazz Records

If anything, Life on Earth proves that The Moons are certainly rising stars on the British music scene.

The album begins with a brilliant jaunty pop song called Don't Go Changin', which sums up perfectly what The Moons are all about. It's upbeat, fun, and a bit quirky. It sets up the rest of the album, which keeps up the same pace and bouncy energy.

Highlights on the album include the more sedate Torn Between Two, which out of nowhere in the middle breaks out of the indie pop stylings into a funky guitar solo, before going back to how the song originally sounded. On first listen it is easy to write The Moons off as nothing more than another one of the identical indie pop bands who were confusingly quite popular a couple of years ago, but listen closer, and their inventiveness will hook you in. Nightmare Day is another highlight, coming on like haunted-house-fairground music, but still being so catchy it's you will be humming it for weeks after.

The album finishes with Last Night On Earth, which carries on in a similar vein as the rest of the album. It's catchy and fun, but it adds a more melancholic flavour, but it still definitely sounds like The Moons.

With twelve songs that don't ever really stray away from the blueprint they set out for themselves, the whole thing wears slightly thin by the end, and you're not left wanting more. Having said this, if they went out of their way to do something massively outside of the blueprint, it probably would not fit with the album, sound forced, and ultimately count against them. Hey, the Ramones made a career out of playing the same song over and over again for 25 years or so, fair play to them if these guys can. Also, if they keep on making albums with titles that are vaguely space-related the gimmick might start to wear thin.

To wrap this up then, Life on Earth contains some fantastic indie pop gems, but perhaps out stays it's welcome. Where there's nothing particularly wrong with The Moons, maybe they're not special enough to really stand out from the crowd.


Ben Walton