‘Moonchaser’ is the debut album from Brooklyn’s Living Room and it’s pretty damn good. You’ve got melodic emo-rock with big vocal melodies, a huge turn of pace, and some really exciting breakdowns.
After a brief and underwhelming introduction the band quickly kick into life. ‘Casual Science’ is a three minute jam which really sets the tone here. It’s fast, technical, and instantly agreeable. Living Room then drop the pace slightly heading out of the chorus and expose their more considered emo influences. There’s that great balance throughout this album – raw pace and headline grabbing early on and then a deeper and intricate underbelly. ‘The Physics Of Intention’ and ‘Aura Camera’ follow suit too. The tracks blast into life, settle themselves down heading out of that first chorus, and then impress on a whole different level as they play out. Think Hey Mercedes mixed with Polar Bear Club, though without the distinctive vocals found in both. That’s not to say the vocals aren’t noteworthy here – they work well in context but they aren’t the talking point in most tracks.
‘Moonchaser’ does mix it up in places, evident on the brief ‘Out Of Love’ with its exasperated vibe and the more aggressive and direct ‘About Time’, with the latter being one of the standout moments here.
Living Room are making a big statement with this debut album. It’s raw, full of energy, and over far too quickly for our liking. It perhaps lacks the character of The Hotelier, or the genre-defining qualities of Braid to be an album of the year contender, but it’s definitely one of the best debuts we’ve heard this year.
TOM BECK