On the heels of the latest The War on Drugs release, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, bassist Dave Hartley, under the name Nightlands, released his new EP Moonshine. Now about seven months on from the Moonshine EP, Hartley is releasing his latest LP, also titled Moonshine. The new album Moonshine contains ten new, completely different songs. But with a run of just over thirty minutes, it almost feels like another EP. This prolific outpouring of material from Hartley came about after relocating to Asheville from Philadelphia and building himself a studio from the bones of an old barn.
The first track, “Looking Up,” immediately gives off vibes of Hartley’s main band with it oscillating synths before auto tuned vocals provide a foundation of more layered vocals singing “Take your family to the mountains/hide them safely/pray for mercy”. “Down Here” has a Tropicalia vibe with its Bossa Nova drum machine beats that strings throughout. Hartley sings, “Let’s pack our bags, move to the mountains /I’ll fix the wall, you do the garden” giving the listener the sense of vulnerability that Hartley must have been feeling as he is writing from personal experience. “No Kiss For The Lonely” gives some Air vibes combined with a funky bass track. With lyrics like “I used to be a bird among the clouds/but lately as I’m looking up the sky is looking down,” Hartley addresses the more depressing human realm as he looks at what is going on in the world around him. “Break my Bones” starts off with catchy electronic lines that sound like a 16-bit video game before Hartley’s layered vocals join in. The titular track is mostly an a capella version of “America the Beautiful” over simple electronic textures.
Moonshine (the album) weaves lyrics dealing with simple things like moving with feelings about politics and the human condition to create an album that really resonates in this day and age. The past few years the world has had to balance feelings about themselves and their families with what is happening on a global scale. The only downside to Moonshine is that its runtime is so short. But, if you combine it with the Moonshine EP from last year, then fans of Nightlands can get a full dose of Moonshine.
