Lo Moon’s Debut Is Our Album Of The Week
Album Of The Week
Lo Moon, a Los Angeles based synth-pop trio, make breaking up seem real nice to do. Their penchant for cinematic songs detail love and love-lost in all of its stages. Their self-titled album, released earlier this year, opens with the Peter Gabriel-esque ballad “This Is It”. The song covers the ups and downs of a relationship in five brisk minutes. “Parallel love / Innocently vacant / On the edge of breaking / Shouldn’t keep me waiting.” Matt Lowell shiftily sings.
Keyboardist Cristanta Baker adds the key arrangements to Lo Moon’s songs, like the subtle ambient tones on “Loveless,” a song which questions how trust works. It’s one of the most plaintively honest songs on the album, and the song that put Lo Moon on the map as a band to watch.
An NPR Slingshot artist
Lo Moon made their splash in 2017, with the exquisitely produced “Loveless.” From there, they were named an inaugural NPR Slingshot band.
Not many bands have had as much anticipation this year, or pressure to deliver. Like the relationships detailed in the album, it was an uphill climb at times. It was a long way to get to Los Angeles, Lowell told NPR, where the band records. “I had moved back from Boston to New York,” Lowell said, going into detail on the songs that make up the album. “I was living at my sister’s place, I was working at this studio in Brooklyn that I helped build.”
In Los Angeles, he met Baker, the keyboardist, who signed on after hearing “Loveless”. “It was incredible,” Baker said. “The first time I heard it, I was, like, screaming. and everyone in the other room was like, ‘What is going on in there?’ ?’ The big fills came in, and I was just excited because it sounded like Phil Collins.”
The fills are becoming a trademark, like on their new single “Real Love”. The song shifts tones from a slow-burner to a pop anthem. On this song, and others, Lo Moon have crafted the art of breaking songs apart, and lifting them back together. Just like the relationships that form a thread on Lo Moon.
Lo Moon are playing the Hi-Dive in Denver on April 10. A few tickets are available.
And a cool thing – leading up the show, the band will be taking over The Colorado Sound’s Instagram account, sharing photos on their tour stop in the Mile High City.
