Single Review: Lo Moon – Thorns
Header photo by Marcus Haney
Up-and-coming Los Angeles alt-rock trio Lo Moon are set to begin their UK tour supporting London Grammar this week. To mark the occasion, they have unveiled another stunning new single titled ‘Thorns’. ‘Thorns’ follows hot on the heels of Lo Moon’s recent promo video for ‘This is It’, which we featured as a Video of the Moment #2449 last week.
Despite its rather prickly title, ‘Thorns’ displays a softer, more subdued facet of Lo Moon’s typically edgy and angular sound. It’s noticeably less reliant on sharp dynamic contrast than ‘This is It’, aiming instead to capture a mood of calm introspection and stillness. Its lyrics are strikingly minimal, comprising only two brief verses and a simple, softly whispered refrain: “no one can love you, no one can love you the same / I’ll always want you, I’ll always want you this way / we’ll learn to outgrow the thorns on the rose”. Yet Lo Moon’s expansive musical arrangement of ‘Thorns’ is no less emotionally dramatic, evolving slowly and deliberately over the song’s 5-minute length. Ambient and gentle at the start, with subtle keyboard and percussion effects, the track picks up some rhythmic momentum and intensity with added layers behind the repeated chorus, and the jazz-tinged brass arrangement in the instrumental interlude is delightfully smooth and sweet.
The band themselves describe ‘Thorns’ as having “had a life of its own from day one.” They have written more extensively about the recording process for ‘Thorns’ in the Our Road section of their official Web site, which you can read by clicking here. We’ve had no word yet on Lo Moon’s impending debut LP release, but ‘Thorns’ is out now on Columbia Records, along with ‘This Is It’ and early single ‘Loveless’. You can find TGTF’s past coverage of Lo Moon, including a live review from SXSW 2017, collected back here.
Leave Your Response