by David Wilikofsky
It really feels like Chicago may have the best music scene in America right now. In just the past year we got killer records from Deeper, Dehd, Ganser, Ohmme, Ono and Floatie (to only name a few). With the release of Bodies of Water, Moontype demand to be added to the top of that list. The trio of Margaret McCarthy (vocals + bass), Ben Cruz (guitar), and Emerson Hunton (drums) originally met while students at Oberlin College. Upon graduating and moving to Chicago, they founded Moontype and were welcomed into the same Chicago DIY scene that fostered many of the aforementioned acts. On their debut album, they sound like a band whose possibilities are limitless.
The group covers a lot of territory stylistically on the album. Tracks like “About You” or “Lush” are straight ahead rockers, the type of songs that are guaranteed to rattle around in your head for days. “When You Say Yes” presents a heavier and knottier sound, devolving into cacophony by the end. “3 Weeks”, an acoustic, almost twee ballad, wouldn’t feel out of place in a Wes Anderson movie. I could go on; because the band has such a talent for contorting their sound into new shapes, the album never ceases to surprise.
The breath Moontype show on the album is impressive, but it’s not what makes this album special. The band knows how to take all these sounds and craft songs where the instrumentals and lyrics meld into something bigger than the sum of their parts. Take “About You”, a song about getting caught up in a crush. “There’s something about you / I just want to hang out with you” McCarthy sings on the chorus. The backing track matches the energy of the lyrics perfectly, bringing familiar feelings of giddiness and excitement to the fore and careening forward with reckless abandon. Another track, “Ferry”, recounts a friendship that is slowly drifting apart. It’s elegiacally heavy backing track that highlights the emotional despair of the lyrics. There’s never a disconnect between the instrumentals and the writing; each detail has its place in the story the band is telling.
Perhaps most importantly, this album is a blast. Even if the small details pass you by, there are plenty of simple pleasures to be found. This is a band whose melodies are catchy and lyrics are tightly crafted, and as good as this album sounds, I’m also willing to bet they sound even better live. These are songs that can instigate mosh pits as easily as quiet a club into hushed reverence. I can’t wait to see that happen in the flesh, but for now I’ll make do by spinning this album on repeat.