SuppliedHalf Moon Run
Glassnote
halfmoonrun.com
A Canadian indie band that rose to fame after their 2012 debut album Dark Eyes, Half Moon Run returned this fall with Sun Leads Me On, an alt-rock album that mixes borderline experimental sounds with the careful precision of a band that knows just what they’re doing. As opposed to their sophomore album, where their influences were fairly easy to pick up on, Half Moon Run seems to show listeners that they have finally found a definite direction of their own. Although their music finds a fixed path somewhere between Radiohead and My Morning Jacket, the four-piece band seems to have finally established their own sound.
Sun Leads Me On lacks the immediacy of Half Moon Run’s first studio release; instead opting for a more relaxed refrain that allows for focus on lyrical experimentation rather than radio-friendly choruses. “Works Itself Out” beckons towards instrumental changes with its daring use of synthesizers, while “Throes” takes a more classical approach with its piano-driven melodies. Sun Leads Me On stands as a record free of the influence of its predecessor—the only track that sounds even vaguely familiar to anything from Dark Eyes is “Turn Your Love”, where all the immediacy of the first album comes rushing back.
Sun Leads Me On is a solid project that is sure to progress the growing success of Half Moon Run. While it may not be the record that made you love them in the first place, it holds its own as the next logical step in the band’s musical progression.
