Smooth, sweet sounds have long had a bad rap, seen as just a step above elevator music; fine in the background, but not stand-out on their own. Yet the style has been in something of an upsurge lately, as people want easier listening music to relax to in these trouble times, to feel honestly. So, check out the by-now-long-running ‘indie-smooth’ of Half Moon Run on their latest, Salt.
Opening up very strongly with the low-key press of “You Can Let Go”, even if Salt never hits quite that high again, it is consistently an enjoyable and accessible record. There’s the softer goodbye of “Everyone’s Moving Out East” and the relaxed sadness on “Heartbeat”, the latter contrasted by the subsequent grander hope with “Gigafire”. It all comes to a conclusion in the orchestral restraint of emotion closer, “Crawl Back In”.
Instead of trying to convince yourself you definitely, totally like the latest auteur high art noise release that all the hipsters say that they are listening to, relax with the easy, enjoyable indie-smooth of Half Moon Run on Salt.
