Boy & Bear - Moonfire (Album) review

This is an album that came out in August last year in Australia and the US (and some other places, presumably) so maybe this is all old news. However, I have only just heard about it as it has just come out over here and so I think it deserves my ‘unique’ critique.

When it begins, ‘Lordy May’ gives the impression that you might be onto something quite excellent. It is nicely understated, self-aware about not being the strongest song on the album but is just there to ease you in which is an effective staple of the great folk albums.

Then the next track arrives. Feeding Line. And then you realise. It is the bloody Mumford & Sons all over again. Shit.

Thus follows the general theme of the rest of the album. You can be certain that it is somewhat better than the depressingly popular, yet folk-murdering Sigh No More, but Dave Hosking’s  voice and the gimmick-y/pop-y building and beating sounds so much like it. It is not void of enjoyment, however, and can be quite fun at points, but you are constantly being reminded of those horrible similarities. There are a couple of other bad things as well.

Part Time Believer does something which really gets on my nerves at the moment. Referencing something they remember, especially when it involves music they used to listen to (in this case the Rolling Stones) is really cheap. It’s like going “hey guys! We’re doing nostalgia, can you feel it?” It is not how you are supposed to do things. It is, however, how you, as a creatively insufficient song writer, try and create a sense of nostalgia with easy words rather than invoking it with complex atmospheres and sincere musical gestures that rest within songs. Perhaps it has something to do with the overwhelming Mumford and Sons sound-a-like moments that exist in the album that makes it sound recent, but not new, and certainly not original. So they try and push fake nostalgia on us instead.

There are also some downright boring moments. My Only One is a really good example of this. And by really good, I mean it is not good and should be skipped. Proper going through the motions standard nothing.  To their credit, they follow this drudge with Golden Jubilee which gets to an area that is more of a reflection of the good side of folk. Fast and fun guitars, sometimes frantic, sometimes simple and rhythmic. Quite enjoyable.

It might be tempting, what with House & Farm, Percy Warner Park and The Village, to give up before you get to track 10, thinking that you have given Boy & Bear enough chances to redeem themselves. Don’t.  Beach is easily the best track on the album and is the only one that can claim to have anything resembling depth and complexity. It might not be as immediately fun as earlier entries but, with it also being the longest at a slightly unpopular 6 minutes in length, it is a substantial treat. 

Give up straight after it though, don’t bother yourself with full on M&S reject final tract Big Man. 

5.0/10