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Jan 12, 2016While Many Moons doesn’t veer from the band’s standard template, its lush arrangements and baroque influences make every track a sheer joy to listen to.
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Nov 2, 2015All told, Many Moons is not only worthwhile for fans of Real Estate and related projects, but for lovers of the honeyed melodies and genial jangle of the pleasantest of power pop.
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Oct 30, 2015These songs might be the result of time spent in-between projects, but they are no b-sides, and they show a bigger, more cinematic side to Courtney’s songwriting that not only provides solitude in its glistening nostalgia, but conjures excitement for his projects to come.
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Oct 30, 2015Many Moons is another deceptively simple, cohesive statement from an artist who is becoming more accomplished with each release.
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Oct 29, 2015Courtney knows how to write a tune as well as make a mood: Northern Highway would have been easy to over-arrange, but it’s done to a turn, just lush enough, but with space to breathe.
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MojoOct 23, 2015Martin Courtney's music is unsurprisingly like Real Estate's in that it comes at an unhurried tempo and sounds deceptively simple. [Nov 2015, p.94]
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Nov 2, 2015In the end, Many Moons appears exactly as advertised: an album that showcases many different faces of the same essential thing. These songs won’t spark any revelations with their musings on time and the subconscious, but they might just transport you to a place that feels like a pleasant dream.
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Oct 23, 2015It all sounds good now, but you somehow get the sense it'll be even better when you dust it off a few years down the road while looking for something particularly soothing. This quality is common to Courtney's songwriting in general; it's background music that lingers in your subconscious until you suddenly realize how much you need it in your foreground.
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Nov 11, 2015Many Moons is more than a mere side-project, and a solid debut album for any season.
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Nov 6, 2015Anybody expecting wholesale reinvention on Many Moons, or even just the chance to hear Courtney attempt to scratch any experimental itch he might have had, are going to be let down; he’s probably never played it this safe before.
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Oct 29, 2015Many Moons then, proves that the 'bad front-man solo project' curse isn’t particularly watertight. En-debut, Martin Courtney comes through with a record that’s as good as any he’s made with his band.
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UncutOct 23, 2015Many Moons is studied, but graciously so. [Nov 2015, p.73]
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Oct 23, 2015Many Moons works as a remarkably cohesive album, meandering its way across themes of past and present to a state of aching clarity that's modest, but no less genuine for
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Nov 11, 2015The Brooklyn-based singer is an expert arranger and song craftsman, if only an adequate lyricist.
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Nov 3, 2015Whilst not engrossing for the entirety of its running, Many Moons is still a pleasurable listening experience. It takes a few listens to get to the lyrical gems, which can often be remarkably revelatory.
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Nov 2, 2015Ultimately some of the material sounds so polished it’s been rendered a little featureless (Little Blue, the title track). A little more grit wouldn’t have gone amiss.
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Oct 27, 2015Many Moons is the fussy, neat feeling we already know of him. The only real change is that we now have to look deeper and listen more closely to invoke a powerful connection between artist and listener. If the songs were more engaging, this would be easier to do. However, they all resolve to their same base parts, and thus become more forgettable than the feelings Real Estate's best songs have conjured.