Artist Spotlights: Moaning Put Synthesizer Sparkle To Your Deepest Insecurities
Synthesizers, melodic basslines, and transparent self-doubt: Los Angeles trio Moaning are here to bring 1980s post-punk to the 21st century. The band’s alternative style is the perfect soundtrack to a moody quarantine.
Artist Spotlights introduces you to artists that may not be on your radar yet, but should be. With recently cancelled tours and income loss for small artists, there’s no time like the present to find new talent to support.
Written by Carys Anderson
Photo courtesy of Michael Schmelling
Recommended If You Like: The Cure, Joy Division, New Order
Moaning performs one of those styles of music that’s so rooted in a particular sound and era that comparisons seem inevitable. Who cares what “post-punk” means when guitarist Sean Solomon sings like Ian Curtis and Pascal Stevenson plays bass and keys like The Cure? Their inspirations may be apparent, but Moaning is anything but derivative. They caught the attention of iconic indie label Sub Pop with their performance at South by Southwest a few years back, and have since released two records with the company; their latest, Uneasy Laughter, came out last month. Band members Solomon, Stevenson, and drummer Andrew MacKelvie put memorable hooks to the genre’s classic bag of tricks for an urgent, streamlined sound primed for the modern age.
The band’s 2018 self-titled debut showcased their ability to whittle the best of the ‘80s down to their essential parts, opting for earworms over meandering atmospherics. “Don’t Go” and “Artificial” grab you with bobbing bass, while “Tired” and “Close” juxtapose the rock with breezy synths. Overall, its concise half hour signaled a band with a clear sense of self.
Uneasy Laughter dives deeper into the dense soundscapes explored in the first album. The sweet swelling of synths in “Ego” uplift its rolling drums and bassline to buoy Solomon’s opening mission statement: “The highest high / The lowest low / I wanna lose my ego.” Defying his occasional slacker, monotonic drawl, Solomon reaches to his upper register for a chorus so singable, you may miss its despair: “I wanna be anybody but myself / I wanna love anybody but myself.”
The driving choruses of standout tracks like “Ego” and “Make It Stop” lean into intensity, but the fervor comes down on “Stranger,” in which Solomon calmly asserts revelations such as “I want to blame you, the problem is me,” and “I hate myself and I saw me in you.” Each biting line is punctuated, again, with Stevenson’s candied keys, and the airy instrumentation helps Solomon’s self-criticisms go down a bit easier. Such rich compositions manage to make hard truths sound comforting.
Solomon’s direct personal reckonings are a highlight on Uneasy Laughter. In a press release for the record, the guitarist explained his desire after getting sober to be more open in his lyricism, saying, “Men are conditioned not to be vulnerable or admit they’re wrong. But I wanted to talk openly about my feelings and mistakes I’ve made.”
Moaning’s work strikes a balance between guitar rock and synthesizer experimentation in alternately upbeat and melancholy terms. The trio explores the human psyche at its most glum, but their tribulations are always tied to a compact melody. With arrangements like these, the band is a welcome addition to a storied genre.
Listen to Moaning on Spotify and find them on Instagram and Twitter @moaningmusic.