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With their second studio album, Blue Moon Confessions, The Halem Albright Band goes into seemingly uncharted territory, putting together an oddly brilliant mix of different genres, instruments, and song layouts. Each song on the album has some sort of musical variation from the next, and The Halem Albright Band keeps you guessing on what kind of song they’re going to pull out of their hat. It has a sort of universal feel, and there’s a song for everyone on the album, regardless of music taste. Overall, Blue Moon Confessions is a wild up-and-down 13-track ride that should be a mainstay on a lot of indie playlists.
The album’s first song, “Come Back,” is a somewhat misleading opener: it’s by far one of if not the poppiest song on the record, and its catchy melodies and spacey guitar riffs are an instant hook. The soft lead vocals bring a contrasting vibe to the song, but it actually fits quite well with the rest of the music. The track serves as an introduction to a new kind of blues that the band progresses with as the record continues.
The following track is called “Lost in The Breeze.” Not only does it introduce various kinds of instrumentation (mainly heavy synthesizers), but it has such a unique sound because of how it blends two genres of music that typically don’t overlap. To put it in simple terms, “Lost in The Breeze” sounds like Pink Floyd and Jimmy Buffett collaborated together on a song; it’s simultaneously both jazzy country and progressive blues, and though that may sound unusual, it happens to be done very well.
Next comes the first of the record’s two instrumentals: “Neighbor Take Flight.” The longest track on the album, spanning five minutes and twenty-nine seconds, this song is the band’s take on experimental jazz. The guitar work on this track is just brilliant, and you can really feel the spacey-blues vibe that was prominent in bands like King Crimson and the aforementioned Pink Floyd. The second instrumental, “Blue Eyed Ram,” differs in a lot of ways from its predecessor but remains just as interesting. Starting with a chopped-up, alien drum beat and an unintelligible vocal and crescendoing into a wall of sound, the track may come across as being straight-up weird, but on further listens it comes across as being wonderfully unique.
Perhaps the ballad of the record, “Tower of Hope, Crashing” stays true to its name. This bluesy ditty introduces a female vocal, which only serves as part of a slow but steady buildup that sounds just like the band’s hopes crashing down. This track, along with “Sendoff 14”, showcases the band’s occasional but present modern indie influence; if you like artists like Peach Pit and Mac DeMarco, these two tracks are for you.
Nearing the end of the record, “God” includes the record’s first acoustic guitar, and it serves as a marker that the album is nearing its end. It has a rootsier, more country feel to it than the previous songs. This is built upon in the album’s closer, “Werewolf on Strike,” including a little bit of everything that came before it in the record. Blues, jazz, indie, whatever you try to define The Halem Albright Band as, this track and the entire album have it all.
Blue Moon Confessions by The Halem Albright Band delivers a unique13-track journey that feels fresh and unpredictable from start to finish. The band masterfully blends an eclectic mix of very different genres and song structures, and no two tracks are the same. This unpredictability will keep listeners intrigued, while the album’s universal appeal guarantees there’s something for everyone, regardless of their musical preferences. Ultimately, Blue Moon Confessions cements itself as a brilliant album for a band that deserves much more recognition.
Reviewed by Jack Rotolo
