Moon Duo – Shadow of the Sun

Rating:

Trying to nail down the sound of San Francisco’s Moon Duo is a bit more difficult than slapping on the label of hazey rock, as these two (three, counting live drummer John Jeffrey) turn that genre inside out. The drone/noise guitar becomes the substance itself and everything else works like kindling to fuel this grungey fire. Shadow of the Sun sees this band creating music that primarily dwells under this haze, occasionally surfacing for lighter and poppier tunes.

They begin with the darkness of “Wilding,” which is pretty much a straightforward gritty guitars blazing rock song. This song is a rambunctious and raw start to the album, as the band starts you out with the shadowy rock before they tone it down from this grit to the more refined “Night Beat.” The band takes the haze of noise with their guitar, reverb coated vocals, and adds a quirky and somewhat spooky synth part to it. Here is the trend that takes hold over the music here; it feels eerie and haunting but with enough dance hooks and jangly percussion to drive it to genre of synth pop. The same can be said with “Zero,” but this song blends the two genres seamlessly into one slow simmering tune.

Later “Slow Down Low, makes for one of the brighter, lighter tunes on the album. The use of airy synths, handclaps and gang vocals make this song a surefire hit, still incorporating those drone-guitars, but they’re balanced out with the clean clarity of the synthesizer. This is one of the best songs, and the guitars take over at its end to provide that revival of darkness before you move on to “Ice.” Nearing the end of the nine songs that Moon Duo has crafted, “Ice,” feels more like a continuation of the previous song, a groovy outro of sorts to tone down the sound before the last song.

                  Shadow of the Sun is a surprisingly fun album; for all the dark and swirling pieces of the music, there are a decent amount of tunes that have a dance-able quality to them. The brooding nature of Moon Duo’s hazey guitar rock sound is always there, but within that space they’ve made songs that work to get you moving a bit beyond just nodding your head. That being said, this album’s novelty wears off a little bit after you’ve put the record down. I’ll be back to revisit my favorite tracks for sure, but on the whole it doesn’t push from good to great.