Album Review: Half Moon Run - 'Salt'
Reflective, diaphanous, and soothing, Salt pulses the same heartbeat throughout the entire album straight from the opening riff of “You Can Let Go” steadily ridding off anxieties in the way only one’s internal monologue is capable of. These short affirmations and feelings accumulate into the “beautiful truthful shouting” of this realization that you can leave all this mental weight behind. This shift in clarity of the vocals on the chorus feel like the fog is clearing up and paving a path of introspection for the tracks to follow. This marks the fourth studio album for Montreal’s Half Moon Run, which consists of a compilation of both new and previously archived material. The band now comprises vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, and Dylan Phillips. They worked with producer Conner Seidel in the creation of Salt, much of which took form at his Treehouse Studio in Sainte-Adèle, Canada.
Portielje calls the opening song “a tumultuous, transformative journey through the dark places of the mind towards, hopefully, the light.” This is the exact journey that we are taken on for the rest of the album. It teeters between acceptance and anxieties, and is expectedly never too melancholy nor upbeat. In fact, the closest we get to a peppy track is "Hotel in Memphis,” which begins with a modern jazz feel on the keyboards but nevertheless concludes in a repetitive submissive confession of “It's like I’m running out of secrets / I can’t keep ‘em.” There is no single track that remains entirely positive; in true Half Moon Run tradition each song provides some sort of blatant realistic perspective or contemplation. The beautiful instrumentals on “Alco” maintains this apprehensive tone of the work, which also served as the second single for the album.
“Everyone’s Moving Out East '' painfully expresses a fear of friends and loved ones leaving, outlining each individual’s reasoning for going that ultimately (and unintentionally) leaves the speaker abandoned. “Heartbeat” also contrasts the album opener with the lyrics ``I'm trying not to let you go / I’m trying not to lose control / but it's terrifying,” once again unveiling the disquietude that perpetuates and connects this collection of songs. Singled out, none of them seem to have quite reached acceptance of the feelings they are addressing, but collectively they demonstrate a growing tolerance for them as they come and go. “9beat” is perhaps the track that conveys the fundamental theme of the album most explicitly. It features similar experimentation as heard in “Goodbye Cali,” and the metronomic mirroring of the anxieties expressed in the lyrics. “9beat” was also the release day single for the album and had apparently been worked on for almost a decade, amongst other songs on the record. For the song, Molander recalls “Devon went through several hundred different Tascam recordings, mining for lyrical and melodic content.”
While each track is quite confessionary and pensive, it manages to remain beautifully sorrowful and comforting, rather than crossing into the realm of heartbreak that it holds the potential to do. This is seemingly due to the instrumental choices – that one pulse – that keeps each song at the perfect mellow level. Salt will never bore you, and there is something new to be noticed with every listen. The wise range of sounds creating its own cohesive vision is one of its most impressive aspects. It is consistent with the genre of their previous three albums, but with a more refined and matured touch.
Half Moon Run will be embarking on a world tour for Salt, hitting the UK this coming September. Given the complex and ethereal nature of the band’s style and sound, Salt is bound to provide memorable live performances everywhere. This album is one that was a long-time coming, and will continue to reveal itself over time.
Words by Frances Cameron
