Review Summary: Stay young.
One listen through Moodring’s debut album
Stargazer had me reminiscing over my adolescent years in the early 2000’s where nu-metal and alternative metal reigned supreme. Where time was spent chugging an icy can of Mountain Dew while sitting in front of the tv, slack-jawed at the latest unreal X-Games stunt or slapping in that unforgettable dark blue Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater videogame cartridge into the mouth of my worn out Nintendo 64 where I lost myself pulling a Christ Air as the adrenaline-pumping soundtrack featuring the mind-bending breakdowns of Primus, the rapid-fire staccato singing by The Ernies, and the throat shredding screaming of Unsane sank into my impressionable mind for the first time. Moodring’s
Stargazer reminds me of those wide-eyed, seemingly endless summer days of that era where anything felt possible and music simply served as a confidant through awkward budding relationships, an escape from the frustrations of everyday life, and energizing theme songs for simply
sending it with your best buddies in tow.
When spinning
Stargazer for the first time, it’s important to keep expectations in check. There’s no overarching concept, none of these eleven songs stretch past four minutes, and indulgent, virtuosic musicianship is shelved for concise, quality songwriting instead. For those unfamiliar, Hunter Young is the leader singer of Moodring. The man has a
White Pony tattoo on one side of his face and a tattoo of the Glassjaw logo on the opposite side of his face. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to calculate what the band’s immediate influences are, but Moodring offer more than just carbon-copy songwriting and an adherence to genre tropes.
Even the usual expectation of a hard-hitting right hook to open a typical alternative metal album is side-stepped for, surprisingly, an atmospheric intro leading into one of the few ballads on the album in “Disintegrate”. Not unlike “Minerva” by Deftones, “Disintegrate” unfolds into a powerful slow-burner that emphasizes the band’s moody, spacey side which rears its head numerous times throughout the album. Just as you’re done floating off into another dimension, “Constrict” does just as the title says, wrapping around listeners with vicious guitar riffs and Young’s urgent screaming before swallowing them up with the first of many irresistible, smoothly-sung choruses on
Stargazer. Moodring continue to blend straightforward aggression with sticky melodies on the outrageously catchy “Red Light Gossip” and the soaring, snot-nosed “Head In The Clouds”. The title track trades angst for a shoegazey slingshot into space as Young croons,
“Stargazer/Lift your eyes towards the sky/Come lay outside/Tonight, you’re alive”.
“N.I.K.E.” is an obvious head nod to Korn’s “A.D.I.D.A.S.” and sensually, yet violently explores the concept of two pastors struggling to reconcile their religious beliefs with lustful temptation for one another. Album highlight and anthemic closer “Xeno (Foreign Love)” grapples with letting go of a toxic, failed relationship. Ultimately, there’s nothing highbrow about any of the lyrics here, just an orgy of topics such as wrestling with life, lust, love, and everything in between.
Quite frankly,
Stargazer won’t win over listeners searching for a classic, lifechanging album with tear-stained, introspective lyrics – but it doesn’t have to.
Stargazer’s nostalgia-soaked eleven song offering transports me back to simpler days when if a song got the blood pumping or my vocal cords vibrating, that was all that mattered. As the sunshine-drenched days grow longer around here, Moodring has taken me back to those innocent, carefree days of my youth when I first popped
White Pony or Trust Company’s
The Lonely Position of Neutral into my orange and black Sony Discman and pressed play. Although my Nintendo 64 is now collecting dust in a closet and my friends have begun raising little, wide-eyed youngsters of their own, I am thankful
Stargazer has provided a little reminder for all of us to stay young and unapologetically lose ourselves in the music we adore.
