Don’t let their jump to an indie record label fool you. The guys of Cincinnati-based quartet Moth return – polished and proper – with their fifth LP, Immune to Gravity.
Anything but raw, the pseudo-punk inflections of the band persist with weedy hooks and self-loathing teenage anthems, mimicking the former garage-rock glory days of The Blue Album and Geffen Records. Of course, with the same fate as many indie-act-meets-major-studio-budget scenarios, the pop sentiment is a bit overwhelming, with the repetitious instrumentals materializing into something monotonous, uninspiring, and borderline grating.
And as for the tongue-in-cheek lyrics (if in fact they truly are “tongue in cheek”), they often fall short of the mark with deep explorations of the superficial (“I say, ‘marry me’ / You say, ‘oh, shut up’”) and stuck-to-the-wall sappiness (“Perfect is what you are / So perfect here under the stars”). Bleck.
Nonetheless, there are a few charmers in the lot. “Girl on Girl,” a fun-time party hymn (reminiscent of The Faint’s Blank Wave Arcade era), paints a vivid picture of sexual frustration in which the band explores man’s most dreaded hypothetical: being dumped by a girl…for a girl. Also notable are piggy-backed tracks “Constantly on” and “Put Her Down,” both so chock full of Dave Grohl that they might as well have been on The Colour and the Shape.
– Bill Wallace
Moth (Hey Domingo)