Wow it’s crazy around here. I won’t be updating Songs:Illinois (or Swedesplease for that matter) much over the next wee or so. But I did carve out a little time to update both today. Here’s a record from back in March that would make a Songs:Illinois “best of” the year list (if I bothered to do one). And this one gets extra points for being so stealth. I mean, really, have you heard or read about this record anywhere else? I thought not.
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The Moore Brothers’ new record Aptos has been out since the beginning of March. That’s a very short time, except for music bloggers that are now covering releases that are coming out in June and July. Clearly The Moore Brothers didn’t hire any of the seemingly hundreds of pr companies cropping up to promote to music blogs or they would have been all over Elbo.ws and Hype by now whether they deserved it or not.
Deserve it they do. The new record has received great reviews from a few high profile online outlets that tend to delve deeper into these sorts of things than your generic pr driven indie rock music blog. This is the band’s fifth record (wrote about them here, here) and to my ears it’s their most accomplished yet. On the surface the songs seem simple but they are not. Some songs pulsate with a stop and go rhythm that propels the songs forward almost dangerously (those are the odd numbered songs) and some are quieter but no less forceful (those are the even numbered songs). The band has hooked up with friend Joanna Newsom who sings and play harp on a song or two and producer/artist Kelley Stoltz for production duties. Each brother (there are two) takes turns by composing/writing alternating songs; one doing the even numbers and one doing the odds.
Aptos is a modern day classic, that had it been released by the Beach Boys or CSNY or even The Beatles would have fit within their catalog of songs. Here’s an odd numbered song written by Thom Moore. “Variety” features upper register vocals that reminds me of prime Game Theory with vocal harmonies that recall the best of the Beach Boys. It’s a short little pop song of the highest order.
But Aptos here.