In anticipation of Joe Brooks’ first release since his I Am Bones emotional rollercoaster, he masterfully teased fans with a weeks worth of enigmatic posts piquing the interest of even the most casual of listeners. With the excitement growing, on October 16th, Pink Sky Moon, a dipping and diving whimsical story of two ‘shadow puppet lovers’ was set free.
If there’s been a year in recent memory that welcomes moments of escapism with open arms, it’s safe to say 2020 would be it. So we have a lot of time for music that is embracing this requirement Pink Sky Moon is in that category. From the outset, birdsong and the flowing water of a gentle stream lifts some of this years weight and prepares us to be carried away before even the first word is sung. It’s easy to enjoy the way the song lures you into a false sense of security with decretive metaphors before landing an honest line that catches your heart strings off guard.
‘We’d try to stop the horizon, before the sun fell through,
Oh how it would light up your eyes, with it’s cotton candy hue…
That’s where I dreamed of you, that’s where I still dream of you’
Brooks constructs an effective arc to the lyric that is mirrored in the energy of the production, ebbing and flowing and steadily crescendoing into a yearning for the past memories.
You can see how the attention span of todays average listen may be tested in the first half of this song, it’s stripped and relies heavily on an intimate vocal tone and poetic lyric, but once the second chorus kicks in, the chorus is surprisingly recallable and by the end of the first listen the hook was lingering pleasantly in our short term memory. With the standard three choruses and under four minute length, this is a song that is easily replays as any more traditional pop song would do. It’s easy see why he has had over 100 million streams across his career.
If you’re already a fan of Joe Brooks and the folk genre, this song delivers in spades. If you’re not already familiar with Joe Brooks and new to the folk genre, this song is the perfect place to start.
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