Half Moon Run

Review:

A Blemish in the Great Light Album by Half Moon Run

Article by Alec Smith

ABlemish in the Great Light is the third album from Montreal-based rock band, Half Moon Run. The Canadian quartet’s latest release brings back the band’s classic sound, complete with their signature dream-like harmonization to layer lead singer Devon Portielje’s vocals. The album opens with “Then Again,” introducing a theme of hardpressed questions about moving on; a theme that laces itself throughout the rest of the record. “It’s gotta take a lot to learn to love/How I wish I knew what it was,” Portielje reflects on in “Flesh and Blood.” The record’s standout comes at its second track “Favorite Boy,” the all-too-familiar story in life about the ending of a relationship, dressed up in an ‘80s psychedelic melody complete with dreamy synths, a funky bass line, phaser-drenched guitar licks, and the band’s most textured harmonies to date. “I don’t know how it started/I don’t know what to believe/My head on your shoulders/Or the ringing in my ears,” the singer confesses from the perspective of someone desperately trying to hold onto a love at the end of its run. “Razorblade,” one of the album’s most complex songs, driven by light acoustic guitars juxtaposed against the line, “You could be my razorblade,” describes someone struggling not to succumb to the darkness of a crumbling world, and instead opting to “look the other way.” The airiness does not last long before the dream dives into a night terror of distortion and heavy percussion with Portielje’s vocals, reaching their climax of the entire record. What follows is a wistful two-minute piano instrumental, “Undercurrents,” squeezing out the last lingering melancholy before leading into the catchy three-chord groove of “Jello on My Mind,” a seductive metaphor that’s easy to figure out upon any listen. While the music that makes up A Blemish in the Great Light is a product of the band’s continued dedication to precision and craft, it’s imagery invokes the feelings of messiness and confusion that come with deteriorating companionships, and the unknowing of what to do when it’s all over.

montreal, quebec halfmoonrun.com @halfmoonrun