Album Review

The Moaners
Blackwing Yaobusha

I know the blues when I hear it. And though I’m from the South, that point of geographic origin really has nothing to do with it, because as cool as it would be if this were still the case, no one, anywhere, really sits around on their porch giving their frustrations a musical outlet.
I say all this to say that I know that the Moaners have been tossed into the ever-growing, ever-splintering “indie rock” category, but the best parts of their latest record, “Blackwing Yalobusha,” are pure blues.
Sure, you can find some of the indie rock conventions on this record -- heavily filtered vocals and guitars and a refreshing lack of wankery -- but the lyrics and vocal tones reveal at a true appreciation for honest songwriting on the part of Melissa Swingle and Laura King.
None of the protagonists in the songs on “Blackwing Yalobusha” are fooling themselves. Each song’s subject seems to go out of their way to be brutally honest with us, from the childhood explorer in “Hopelessly Lost” to the narrator of “Poor Souls,” a character which seems to float above the song’s commentary, at one point casting doubt on whether what she’s saying is even useful.
For me, the lyrics on “Blackwing Yalobusha” make it a solid record, but of course this kind of brutal honesty cuts both ways, and a times the lyrics can be heavy handed. In the song “Monkey Tongue,” the narrator asks “Dammit man, where is your heart? / This world at war is so insane / fanatics on the right / fanatics on the left / Jesus didn’t bomb all night.”
This song is the weakest of only a few weak spots on the record, simply because I think that it’s too easy. For all the complexity of Swingle and King’s observations on relationships, politics, emotion, this one seems to ignore the fact that humans are not monoliths; that we are capable of compartmentalization; that even the best people are capable of the worst.

Posted by
Nick Dana