Moonlight Concessions

Solid album from these indie rock stalwarts, I realize as I add a + to nearly every track. Kristen Hersh still at the helm with her husky voice, playing guitar, and long-time bassist Bernard Georges & original drummer Steve Narcizo still at it too, with occasional strings thrown in. Throwing Muses have been together going on 40 years now and never lost their edge. Their bandcamp description:
‘Moonlight Concessions’ goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaimed ‘Sun Racket’ from 2020, a heady set filled with tough and tender tales spiked with surreal imagery. ...
Written in the differing South Coast environs of The Gulf Of Mexico and Southern California, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ pulls from the star clusters that light both, generating optimism and hope in varying degrees. Hersh explains, “In New Orleans the stars look greenish-blue, as it’s below sea level and swamp-lit. But on Moonlight Beach, they glow icy white. All these songs were written in these two glowy places, which helped our sonic technique find itself.”  released March 14, 2025

1 + driving repetition, I told you so looking back on life as it should should’ve been finally. Guitar and a little bit of strings midtempo.
2 + mid tempo, indie rock, defensive
3 + Expansive 3/4 time strings take center stage. quiet vocals.
4 Nod your head along with this mid tempo, missing a honey- or are they?
5 + Fast folky minor-key 3/4 time. Sad song, metaphor on a toxic situation
6 + Expansive guitar + strings, dreamy, mid-slow.
7 mid-tempo - perhaps referencing a DUI stop in the lyrics? "a kerbside soliloquy caught en route to a more alluring rendezvous. Built on a brisk acoustic strum with a guitar sub-melody underpinning proceedings, it’s an unfolding tale of social awareness from a blurred sub-conscious."
8 FCC at 1:50 "fucked" 3/4 time, faster
9. + Languid closer