Monday, January 7, 2013

Poor Moon Is Fragile


In listening to Poor Moon's self-titled album it becomes obvious that if Nick Drake had been a fairy he may well have formed this band before they came along. Poor Moon is an intimate, folky, and mildly psychedelic record with odd flourishes, strange lyrics, vocals that seem whispered and a general feeling of living in a much simpler time.

Poor Moon for most of it's thirty minutes seems almost half awake and half in a dream where the band teeters in and out of REM sleep. It's a weird fairy folk record that at times seems pastoral, winsome and quirky. Poor Moon, I suspect, may have recorded this album after awakening from a Nyquil fueled coma as the dreams they were running through continued. It's an up close and personal record that's so quiet it almost seems like it's a bit too medicated for it's own good; as a result I'm not sure how I feel about it. Things going against it include the fact that it is a folk record and it's got zero in the energy department. But there are things for it including just how original much of the band's ideas are and just how dazed and confused it all seems. Having listened to this thing a bunch it's a bit too hard to decide.

Decisions aside, the album peaks about mid-way through on "Waiting For," and, "Heaven's Door," where the band seems to wake up long enough to skip and march through these two, two and a half minute jovial jaunts. If there were more moments like this...it would be the best thing that Danielson Family never recorded but as it stands it's really the highlight of the record. Not short on ideas, but a bit short in the energy department Poor Moon seem almost too lackadaisical to be imaginative. If they'd let their imagination wake up and run rampant the record would benefit greatly and I'd probably be over the Poor Moon.

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