Nightlands – the project of Dave Hartley from The War On Drugs – has announced his new album, Moonshine, out July 15th on Western Vinyl, and shares a video for the title track. Amid massive global paradigm shifts Hartley became a father twice over and left his native Philadelphia for Asheville. From the newfound refuge of a studio he built using the bones of a barn attached to his hundred-something-year-old house in the mountains, Hartley has tailored a collection of well-crafted dream pop, pointedly titled Moonshine. Guided by some of the harmonic sensibilities that have helped make The War On Drugs a force in modern music, Moonshine combines immaculate-yet-dense vocal stacks and billowy clouds of effected keyboards with classic songcraft, revealing previously unseen acreage in the unfurling dreamscape that is Nightlands.
Throughout the album, there are plenty of buoyant high moods where the pitter-patter of drum machine and humming digital organ hints at Hartley’s low-key tropicalia streak, but the lyrics anchor the dreaminess in real-world sorrow and resignation. Nowhere are these sentiments more apparent than on “Moonshine,” a nearly acapella recitation of “America the Beautiful” that poignantly hovers over a mirage of soft keyboards before dovetailing into Hartley’s own words about the hypocrisy of the American dream. “This was never intended to be an overtly political record,” he admits. “I have so many friends who are able to process the frustration of current events gracefully or with wisdom or in a nuanced way, but I often find myself just consumed with anger about it all. I decided to just let that come out, and it manifested itself lyrically.” Moonshine‘s wide-eyed, utopian instrumental backdrops provide sharp contrast to Hartley’s lyrics, which sting even harder within the sweetness.
Moonshine Tracklist
1. Looking Up
2. Down Here
3. Stare Into the Sun
4. Greenway
5. Moonshine
6. With You
7. Blue Wave
8. No Kiss for the Lonely
9. Break My Bones
10. Song for Brad
