Poor Moon - Illusion EP Review

In general, this side project doesn’t give you anything that you haven’t heard before, which inevitably leaves it sounding like the songs left on the cutting room floor.

By Harry Harris / March 26, 2012

Release date: 26th March

rating:2

Youd be forgiven for thinking that side projects were just something Jack White invented to trick people into thinking he was producing new music every couple of years, when in reality hes just been singing the same song over and over again. However, it turns out other bands can create splinter groups too! The latest being Fleet Foxes, already a side project of My Morning Jacket (Ok, theyre not, but they sound like they are). Poor Moon are Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott from the Foxes, plus Ian and Pete Murray from The Christmas Cards, and their Illusion EP is released on 26th March in advance of a full length record later in the year. Its...its fine. I should have mentioned actually that theres another member of this band, and it is he who seems to have the loudest voice when it comes to creative control. That member is reverb, because this album has shit loads of it. Every song is absolutely drowning in echoes, as if the songs were recorded in aircraft hangars, and then had loads of reverb put on them in the post. The problem with this is that in the more arranged songs the levels are all off. Where the acoustic guitar should be mellifluous and haunting in Anyplace, it is lost in a choir of monotonic voices and a shrill electric guitar. Same goes for the title track, where the tone of the guitar is second fiddle to a wall of sprawling sound. Its a real shame. I suppose though if you like Fleet Foxes then youre probably used to a shit-ton of reverb on vaguely folksy songs, so you probably wont notice anything different here. Theres less going on in terms of the arrangements, but the fluid harmonies that characterise their parent bands music are still present here, working most effectively in the lovely Widow. In general, this side project doesnt give you anything that you havent heard before, which inevitably leaves it sounding like the songs left on the cutting room floor from the last Fleet Foxes record. Saying that, its hard to get the full measure of a band from an EP, so well wait until their full length record comes out before passing our full judgement.