Night of the Worm Moon is the second solo album by La Luz singer, songwriter, and guitarist Shana Cleveland. The serene recordings are driven by the grasping of an acoustic guitar, Shana's lovely voice, and sporadically slow tempo. The band of regular contributors never overshadows the calmness of the record despite delivering everything from complex bass lines to dramatic, distorted guitar riffs. A more ambitious and consistent recording that continues Shana's future folk dreams first encountered in her 2015 debut solo album, Oh Man, Cover The Ground. One of my favorite albums of 2019.

Something else from the press release:
As much a work of California sci-fi as Octavia Butler’s Parable novels, Night of the Worm Moon incorporates everything from alternate realities to divine celestial bodies. Inspired in part by one of her musical idols, the Afro-futurist visionary Sun Ra (the album’s title is a tip of the hat to his 1970 release Night of the Purple Moon), the record blends pastoral folk with cosmic concerns.

Cleveland dreamt up this premise while living in Los Angeles, a city where--as deftly explored on La Luz’s recent Floating Features--reality and fantasy casually co-exist. One particularly evocative scene laid the groundwork for Night of the Worm Moon’s psychedelic undercurrents. As Cleveland tells it, “Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles I went to a hip hotel to watch a poolside screening of a documentary about a local alien-worshiping cult. Out front celebrities were getting out of the backs of cars and rushing past autograph hounds into some roped-off room where a secret dinner was about to commence. In the lobby a woman was being paid to exist inside a glass box. [Then] a car dressed as a spaceship pulled up in front to release 30 white doves into the sky above Sunset Boulevard.”
RIYL: Cate Le Bon, Will Sprott, Cat Power, Aldous Harding and Beck’s Sea Change.

FCC CLEAN!
Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10

1. (3:20) **Don't Let Me Sleep – Slow tempo. Guitars and vocals. Some synths and chorus. Beautiful melody.
2. (3:29) ***Face of the Sun – Slow tempo. This is how I imagined a La Luz ballad would sound. Stunning track.
3. (3:12) **In Another Realm – Slow tempo. Quiet, minimal. Exquisite piece.
4. (1:41) *Castle Milk – Slow tempo. Instrumental track. Photographic.
5. (2:59) ***Night of the Worm Moon – Slow tempo. Sweet and tender. Lovely vocals.
6. (2:58) *Invisible When the Sun Leaves – Slow tempo. Guitar, vocals and other distant sounds. It makes me think of Nick Drake’s dramatism.
7. (3:39) The Fireball – Slow tempo. Another very interesting future folk ballad here.
8. (2:17)*Solar Creep – Slow tempo. Guitar, vocals and other distant sounds part II.
9. (4:20)**A New Song – Slow tempo. Guitar, synths and vocals. Delicate piece.
10. (3:18) **I'll Never Know – Slow tempo. Guitar, vocals and other distant sounds part III.