release date: Oct. 13, 2009
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]
producer: Paul Bryan
label: Yep Roc Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Good Morning Happiness" (live) - 3. "Little Moon" (live on KEXP) - 6. "Nightbirds" - 7. "Violet" - 8. "Buried Treasure" (live on KEXP)
6th studio album by Grant-Lee Phillips is like a combination of the predecessor, Strangelet (from Mar. 2007) - with its more uptempo pop / rock songs - and Virginia Creeper (Feb. 2004) with its focus on primarily acoustic alt. folk. What I don't appreciate that much on the album, is a bold inclusion of brass instruments, which sometimes makes it sound like The Beatles when they were most mainstream.
Having come across a few of his acoustic live versions from the KEXP radio show, they really puts his compositions on a higher level, so the production side of the album, I think, is not doing justice to his material, really, and Little Moon basically falls in the low end of his discography.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
