Harry
Zach
It is very difficult for me to write an objective, unbiased review of a Moonchild album, mainly because they fit extremely within my music taste and therefore I am going to always favour it over a lot of other music.
Let’s start with the positives. Moonchild produce extremely tasteful, harmonically interesting and rhythmically satisfying songs consistently. It’s what they do best. The combination of well-voiced synth chords with heavy laid back beats and Amber Navran’s gorgeous soft tones is a sonic package that is tried and tested, and is something that they’ve continued with their 4th studio album, Little Ghost.
Little Ghost embodies all the best qualities of Moonchild and is altogether a collection of some extremely pretty songs. The singable hooks, head-nodding beats and diatonic melodies make for a very enjoyable listening experience. The name, Little Ghost, is the English translation of the name of one of Saturn’s moons, and this cosmic quality is well conveyed throughout the tracklist. Taken completely out of context, this is an excellent album. However, there is a problem.
Moonchild are better than this. By their standards, they are capable of producing an album that really pushes the genre forward and is new and innovative. This is a comparatively vanilla effort: the harmonic content is well within the established idiom, as are the beats, which, at their worst, are predictable and a bit boring.
I feel being harsh, don’t get me wrong I really like this album! And taken out of context it is easily one of my favourites of 2019, however in the context of Moonchild’s discography it falls short of the ridiculously high bar they set for themselves. Gone are the days of their second studio album, Please Rewind, which was undoubtedly a masterpiece in modern Neo-Soul. There are no songs on this project even slightly on the level of how huge The Truth is.
This makes it particularly hard for me to review this album, as on one hand I really really enjoyed listening, and on the other hand I can’t help but be slightly underwhelmed! In my opinion a great Moonchild album would push into the High 80s and 90s for me, which is why I’ve given this album the number I have.
Spazzy McGee 