Moontype
I Let the Wind Push Down on Me
Orindal Records
Ready to throw away her crutches, alcohol being one such prop, Margaret McCarthy — singer/bassist and songwriting savant for swooning indie-rock explorers Moontype — could hardly be described as “Starry Eyed” after the release of their inward-looking, confessional sophomore LP I Let the Wind Push Down on Me. Under the influence of its lovely, woozy effects and in awe of its celestial sweeps, the mesmerizing track from the dreamy truth seekers a slow turning, wintry wanderer, she wonders, “Why do I keep opening that door? Every time I think it’s closed, there’s more.”
That old demon drink knocks again and again, McCarthy admittedly relying on it to stay even keeled when her emotions threaten to throw everything into complete disarray. In owning up to her weaknesses, while sorting out elsewhere what triggers her temper and leads to clinging isolation, McCarthy’s breathy, cooing vocals blow frost on these windows to her soul, as a yearning “Starry Eyed” points the way to the darker places Moontype goes to here, whereas 2021’s prized debut Bodies of Water was content to let nature take its course to curing effect.
If the healing has begun, then Moontype’s mood swings — from the fuzzed-out, raucous euphoria of “Click Clack” to the languid unraveling and distorted, crackling stomp of “Long Country” and the frolicking blips and wistful whirr of “How I Used to Dance” — can be viewed as therapeutic. Sweeter still, yet bracing and prickly, “Anymore” and its shoegazer bends, noisy eruptions, and spreading eddies throw commiserating coats over the cold shoulders of uncomfortably numb lyrics, while an evocative “Four Hands ii” dabbles in airy electro-pop, as does a meditative “Crushed,” which always seems on the verge of either breaking apart or taking off. A repeating vertigo of guitars and keyboards, the occasional pounding drum outburst and other sounds barely holds it together.
With its trembling melancholy, math-y exercises in subtlety and restraint, and interesting experimental asides, I Let the Wind Push Down on Me is full of epiphanies and doubts, paralyzing fear and bravery. And the rest of Moontype, now a bigger enterprise than before, with two newer members, falls in line, with delicate piano tinkling and intricate and fluid guitar forays carving out enticing new melodic paths and understated influences like Low, Beach House, Slowdive, and whatever Dean Wareham’s been up to all these years surely giving their blessing. Moontype is cleared to land.
