Lo Moon’s self-titled debut was ambitious. The result was a complex art-rock album that exacted patience from the listener—but for this follow-up, this LA-based outfit take the opposite approach, greatly simplifying their music.
A Modern Life strips away the layers and grandiosity and reveals the songs for what they are: simple, well-written rock songs with a lot of soul. And these relatively straightforward numbers show how great Lo Moon are, at their core.
“Stop,” an indisputable album standout, is a serene acoustic guitar-centered number like some of the slower songs on Radiohead’s 
The Bends, such as “Fake Plastic Trees.” And like The Bends, this simple melodic number has spacey accents in the background, enhancing it, but not interfering with what’s going on in the foreground.
It’s like Lo Moon decided to turn their musical style inside out on this record compared with their previous one. The elaborate and meticulously fashioned musical ambience that was so front and center on the group’s debut, still exists on A Modern Life, but does so in the background, bestowing splendor to the music, sight unseen. This makes the directness of the emotions shine in all their majesty, while adding just enough intricacy and intrigue to make the music interesting.
Singer Matt Lowell is more emotional and earnest than never before. On “Eyes On The Prize,” he sings “I’d rather be dead; than live with no passion” before bursting into an effusive chorus. “Dream Never Dies,” starts off with pensive and wrenchingly melodic seventies folk-style pianos (which then subtly morph into synths playing the same notes), with Lowell singing with achingly tender vocals as he gets all nostalgic: “What happened to all the easy days of summer?” Then, with the words “if I can make this last, and all I have to do is close my eyes” he dives into an epic heartfelt chorus singing, “Hope the dream never dies” that’s as big and effusive as a U2 chorus.
The simplicity in Lo Moon’s musical approach has granted them the space to be more open and vulnerable here. The band has embraced this new style so elegantly and passionately, that it is nearly impossible to be disappointed by it, no matter how big a fan you are of their debut and expect a similar trajectory for the follow-up. A Modern Life is a surprise…and there couldn’t have been a better one!