Moes Anthill
Quitter

Quitter, that’s a title for the weak-minded I suppose. And it is what Moes Anthill calls their new album, the third in their discography. It is a band that revolves around the Swiss singer/songwriter Mario Schelbert, also referred to as Moe, who sings, writes and plays guitar as well as Banjo for the band. He invites us to join him on a magical balloon ride through the universe of Moes Anthill. It is a universe where our gaze is directed towards the lost, uncomfortable and unbelievable, and where the lines between appearance and reality are blurred. The good thing is that everyone gets a balloon, so lets grab it and see what’s what.

Under the label of folk or folk rock might be where this album ends up, the press info states somewhere between Neo-Folk and Americana and that is probably not a bad description. Moe sings almost in a talking way at times, they blend elements of nostalgia and their own fresher ideas to made a rather bold album in the folk pop/rock genre. There are some female vocals as well, and the production is really good but the album could have used some more variation and a slightly shorter playing time as I think it is a tad on the long side. The tempo is also mostly low adding to this sense of a long playing time, I kind of miss the exhilaration of a magic balloon ride when listening to the album.

I think that the album is quite good, the songs are good throughout and I don’t think any particular song is really weak but there are some slow parts that I can do without, like the ones that make Finding Stones a much less interesting song than it could have been. I think more dynamics wouldn’t have hurt. The title track along with Everyone Gets a Balloon are the best two tracks on the album, but I think they could have trimmed most of the songs slightly and perhaps also removed one to make the album a bit tighter and more captivating. That is the problem with being a critic, one keeps finding the flaws that most others don’t really think about, but that is the thing about really listening to very many album many times. And when doing so I can imagine that these guys will have some trouble standing out from the masses, they will probably just be lumped together with many other folkish bands.

The ride on the balloon might not be as good as I had hoped, it is a bit too long and not as exciting as I think it could have been. I like the ride though, but it can be difficult to give it full attention for the entire playing time, it is good nevertheless. The conclusion is that I have to be positive towards this album, but it has me thinking: shouldn’t it be Moe’s Anthill?

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