Moonfire

Boy & Bear are preparing to capture the world

Moonfire, the first full-length effort from an Australian band having a funny title, Boy & Bear, is certainly going to be one of the 2011 year’s best selling records. Saying that it was much anticipated would be a great understatement. The album was a hot dispute issue long before anybody knew anything about it. To be more exact, as soon as the band dropped their EP With Emperor Antarctica in 2010, the whole stir around them whirled in a blink of an eye. The audience as definitely eager to get something more than those fifteen minutes of the little release, and the critics were willing to have more material to analyze, still hoping to find some errors. The music from Sidney-based ensemble was indeed impressive. Without taking time to warm up, get ready or drop hollow promises, the rockers first issued five excellent tracks and then solidified their positions with an amazing tour alongside Mumford & Sons. By the end of that campaign, it was rather hard to define which of the bands the audience wanted to see more. The only problem was that the concerts took place in Boy & Bear’s motherland, Australia, alone and nowhere else. The band seemed to be well known only on their home soil. Well, the release of Moonfire is going to bring the turnaround here.

Top level execution of a considerate album

OK, we have the Moonfire basic version that features eleven fresh numbers from the good lads out of Boy & Bear, and the extended version that adds up five live tracks. The whole joy lasts as long as an hour. Boy & Bear expose confidence, as if this is not their first time, and present a solid CD with songs that differ in tempo and melody, but still have the same attractiveness. By the attractiveness we imply standout work by instrumentalists who made sure their guitars and piano bring nothing but pleasure in each track, and as standout harmonic vocals, particularly in choruses, although it is clear all the big credits go to the frontman, Dave Hosking. He is especially good when the songs have some connection with him on personal level, like Part Time Believer, a display of the music his parents used to listen to. Another big thing is the sequence of the songs. The highlights are not piled up in just one part of the record, but distributed all over the album. And what are the highlights here? Well, these are single Feeding Line, beautiful Golden Jubilee with organ insertions, and exotic Percy Warner Park with banjo sounds. The CD is concluded by another awesome piece, Big Man, boasting simple, yet touching acoustic guitar.

Boy & Bear’s confident debut

If put briefly, Boy & Bear’s debut is a success. From the very start of their activity, the Australians did not go looking around and trying to pick examples to follow, or performers to copy, but played their own sort of material. One more vital point is that the fresher does not pose as rock and roll messiahs, great inventors, or wise men for everyone to hear and obey. Quite the opposite, the Moonfire tracks lyrics are short of loud statements and gets right inside you easily at first listen. At the same time, the selection of words and phrases, often taken from everyday speech, not from scientific works, makes you believe that the author knows hot to reach you. Still, the music is quite much more important here, or rather not the music, but the effect produced by the combination of the instruments and the leading singer’s voice. There is some lightness in it, some carelessness, and warmth. Moonfire is a record that sets the mood, but the same very songs will sound different at a concert, no doubt about that. Like any big act, Boy & Bear work faithfully both in the studio and on the stage.