Belated in arrival following their 2006 eponymous debut and 2016’s II, Modern Moonlight by The Early Years shows no signs of creative lethargy. The band built their own studio, learnt how to produce, record, engineer, and mix. Therefore, they could hardly be accused of being work-shy.
The hard work has paid off. It’s a brilliantly produced, multi-dimensional album. It shifts from cinematic arrangements to loose-limbed funk to twinkling electronica to shape a life-affirming album.
An epic and emotive LP
Modern Moonlight opens with a knockout trio of tracks. It sounds like a band in a hurry to get down to business after all this time away. The propulsive bassline of the epic-sounding ‘A New Way Of Living’ crescendos into the House of Love-esque ‘Get Up Get Out’ giving way to the shimmering disco beats of ‘The River’.
The beats drop in and out throughout the album whether darkly underpinning the dizzying synth lines of ‘Shimmering Stone’ or driving along ‘The Gift’. The latter is a monster of a tune that builds into a frenzy of clapping, clarinets, and yelping, plaintive, vocals.
This is also an emotive album too. Maybe it’s been shaped by the band experiencing births, marriages, and bereavements over the last decade or so. The energetic moments of Modern Moonlight are counterbalanced by the wistful ‘Tired Eyes’ and the sweeping melancholy of ‘Silver Lips (Champagne Eyes)’. The latter track features vocals by Lorena Quintanilla from Mexican psyche band, and label-mates, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete.
Modern moonlight explained
What of that mystical album title? “Modern Moonlight, says drummer Phil Raines, “came about at 2am when we were writing the song. Heroes don’t stand in sunlight anymore. They stand in the bluish glare of a phone at 2am wondering if anyone else is listening or even awake.”
The Early Years have made an accomplished, thrillingly fantastic return with a record that is shaping up to be one of the best albums of the year.
Anthony Gibbons
That sense of longing runs through the album but it doesn’t descend into introspection. This is a forward-looking album. The lyrics to ‘Three Quarters’ state the ‘Future’s bright, the future’s brilliant’. That’s because in Modern Moonlight, The Early Years have made an accomplished, thrillingly fantastic return with a record that is shaping up to be one of the best albums of the year.
Modern Moonlight by The Early Years is out now on Sonic Cathedral.
The Early Years and Sennen tour dates
The Early Years head out on a co-headline winter tour with label-mates Sennen (named after a Ride song shoegaze fact fans!) Get your tickets by clicking here.
Indeed, Sennen release New Quiet, their first album in over 10 years, on October 30. They self-recorded it and James Chapman, aka Maps, mixed it. Why not subscribe to this blog to read more about Sennen in the coming months?
