Until I listened to this, although I’d heard of Van Houten, I’d never actually heard anything by them. This is something I immediately regretted. It is sometime since I heard anything like this.
‘Moon’ is a psychedelic, dreamy pop thing, it’s just incredibly laid back, and takes you into a journey into the clouds, it has that mesmerising quality that takes you to another place, a calm and rather beautiful place. There’s nothing jarring there to trip you out of that calm mood it puts you in.
Musically you probably expect jangly guitars, and they’re there. You’d probably expect rather lush vocals, and yep, you’d be right. So far so retro, but it isn’t there’s something else there which brings it up to date, or rather adds something that makes what they do not at all retro. I get hints of Aztec Camera and Orange Juice plus something else I can’t quite put my finger on – although World Party floats around in my head. It’s an intoxicating mix.
I love this track, it’s rather beautiful. And we could all do with some beauty in our lives.
