Rating:   14 Ratings     12345  

The Moonbabies The Orange Billboard Hidden Agenda/Parasol

      It's the fifth line on The Orange Billboard's first track, "Fieldtrip USA" and could probably suffice as an adequate album review. The 'random procedure' they speak of could certainly describe the music on this album, but only half baked. It's random to the ear because this is not the same formula re-done in different keys over and over ad-nauseam, this is passing fireworks over three different towns on your way home from grandma's. Things are just happening in every direction on this record and all of them seem inherently good and important to The Moonbabies big, bright picture.

Track listing: 01 Fieldtrip USA 02 Sun A.M. 03 Over My Head 04 Crime O' The Moon 05 Jets 06 Summer Kids Go 07 Forever Changes Everything Now 08 Slowmono 09 Wyomi 1 10 The Orange Billboard 11 You Know How It Is

      One guy, one girl, no stripes. If this is what pop music is like over in Sweden, then I have got a considerable amount of swimming ahead of me. The team of Carina Johansson and Ola Frick make music that demands specific attention to each individual speaker in the sound system, whether it be two, four, or more. Their placement of grooves and spacey sounds creates the perfect sonic landscape for their voices, guitars, and toys to roam and frolic. There is a long highway winding through this album that has acoustic guitars and piano keys flashing its their headlights at the electric guitars and effects that are whizzing by in the opposite lane. Somehow, both end up in the same place. From song to song, the musical highlights check in from a new source every time.

      At times, these two Moonbabies trade pieces of verse or chorus, other times one handles each, and sometimes they share entire songs together, each voice a supreme compliment of the other. Johansson's voice has the unsteady confidence of an Aimee Mann, while Ola Frick is able to move up and down the charts as needed, hitting the low end of harmonies and soaring high (quite beautifully in a ‘just about to crackle’ kind of way) on tunes like "Wyomi" and the almost haunting "Over My Head". Vocally, each song is just as diverse as the collection is musically, the result is a very fresh sound that I could certainly say reminds me of some people, but not entirely, more like the energy matches that of this or that artist. The sounds sit all alone.

      This album makes the listener feel right at home in a number of ways, whether it be the Casio toy keyboard sounds found on several tracks and used wonderfully on the instrumental "Jets" or the happy to be here, happy to be alive diction of "Crime O' The Moon' despite the grim (in a ‘some things don’t change even after you die, so make the best of it’ sort of way) lyrics. The Orange Billboard has brought summer to my winter days and made me want to be in the bar where:

We were dancing to 'Like A Hurricane'

You were bouncing, There was always someone to follow

I like to be there Just for a little while

      There is a distinct mixing of sounds and influences coming together in Johansson and Frick’s punchbowl, everything blends and meshes perfectly and all of their experimentation is well worth the risk. This is in no means “safe” music. This is not something everyone will be able to listen to and like or even appreciate right off the bat. It’s much like the big painting in the museum that everyone approaches head on and cannot help but turn their head sideways for fear that the curator has hung it incorrectly.

      A song like “Slowmono” is a small window into the minds behind the paintbrush. The beginning is such a far stretch from the end, but everything falls into place as the track builds and builds upon itself changing over from one form into the next. All of the pieces fit together, but it takes the bridge built by its conductors to show us how so.

      The liner notes show a big red label just waiting to be affixed to vinyl and displays the track listing broken down into sides A and B. I can definitely see different things happening with the tracks that would be bunched together to comprise each side. While “Over My Head” is a little darker and a little slower, it has its slow counterpart on the would be B side with “Wyomi”. Aside from that detractor (and I use that word only in illustrating my point, not categorizing any of these songs), the A side is full of the more happy go lucky tunes musically. Most of the lyrics throughout the whole album touch base beyond the bright colors found in the music though, it’s the approach that is warm and fuzzy. But tracks like “Field Trip USA”, “Sun A.M.”, and “Crime O ‘The Moon” have a vibrant spirit running through them. While all of these songs experiment with a mixture of sounds and instruments, the first-siders have nothing on audio conglomerates “Slowmono” and the records longest tune, title track, “The Orange Billboard”. The first two B side tracks, “Summer Kids Go” and “Forever Changes Everything Now” are reminiscent of side A’s wistful glory and at the same time could segue into some of the harder songs on the album if those harder songs didn’t segue into themselves already. Don’t know what I mean? A song segueing into itself? Give it a spin, you’ll see.

      One of the best attributes of this album is the fact that all of these songs are done so well that you may find yourself favoring certain ones for the first few listens and then getting stuck on a different grouping after a couple more listens. The back to back “Summer Kids Go” and “Forever Changes Everything Now” did not necessarily grab my attention right off of the bat, but after favoring others from the start, these two tunes demanded my attention. They fall in place perfectly with the flow of the album as they lead to the left turn that the album takes on its closing numbers.

      All of the songs on The Orange Billboard are arranged greatly. The space in between the two slow songs allows for a lot to travel through one’s mind getting from one side to the other. The heavier guitars are placed together with a down tempo tune in between to give the end of the album a certain feel and flow going into, “You Know How It Is,” the final tune. An interesting note about the album and its tracks is the use of blending and extended silence between them. The tracks that would complete side A run into each other so much so, that the guitar of one track runs right into the chords of the next at some points. The segue from “Sun A.M.” to “Over My Head” is very interesting and worth a slot under the microscope. In fact, all of the side A segues are impressive and will benefit a listener with an extended volume knob or set of headphones. Side B is a little more “classic” as sounds from one song stop on a dime right before another starts, or use the fade and silence routine. A very noticeable long silence sets the sides apart as “Jets” ends and “Summer Kids Go” waits to begin.

      Another great note about The Moonbabies, they wrote all of the music and lyrics, engineered, mixed, and produced The Orange Billboard themselves. I really give it up to musicians who take that much control over their music, because it seems to shows that their vision goes far beyond just writing songs in a room. They know how to shape the vast cavern that of silence into something that deserves the audiences’ attention as much as a good film would. Many great musicians write meaningful music and lyrics but get a big boost up the stairs by producers with a superb awareness of studio possibilities and wizardry. When the musicians have that knowledge on their hands, I think the door of possibility opens wider and wider. The Moonbabies could take that door right off the hinges not just because they have showed the ability, but they seem to be fearless as well.

      Someday, I want to step outside of my front door into The Moonbabies world. I don't want to know when; I'd rather relish the surprise. Instead of hitting the sidewalk and passing the old graveyard before I get to McDonald's, Taco Bell, 7-11, and Dairy Queen, I want to step into The Orange Billboard. It will take me way up high only to review and handle the lows, but when I go spinning and twirling back to the good times, I'll know the bright spots are worth all of the dark. Realistically, I don't know that we live in a place where The Moonbabies could be on the radio everyday or where we could see a video like Colony's work on "Over My Head" at any decent waking hour. That's not a bad thing though, the people who should hear The Orange Billboard will hear it -- it will find them.

-Joel Armato 02/21/04