Artist: Moose Blood
Album: I’ll Keep You In My Mind, From Time to Time
Label: No Sleep Records
Genre: Indie, Emo

Fall is here. It’s my favorite time of the year, and as such, the albums I listen to during this magical season are incredibly important. It takes a certain type of band to fit into my Fall rotation. AFI and My Chemical Romance are obvious mainstays, but I need other bands to fill those late night drives to spooky places. The ones where you have your windows all the way down, with your hoodie on, and you can smell the bonfires and the cool air smacking against your face.

Ever since No Sleep Records announced the signing of Moose Blood to their lineup, I was immediately hooked. Their catalog wasn’t very large, but I could definitely see the potential brewing. Moose Blood’s debut full-length for the label, I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time, is a strong first effort from the band that captures the Autumn air, and boils it down into 11 tracks.

I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time for one, is a fantastic indie-emo record. It sustains the same atmosphere throughout the entirety of the record, which in a world full of singles, it’s nice to hear a record that feels very much like a body of work. “Cherry” slowly guides you into the record, setting the stage for the themes of disappointment, hope, and change that will make up the rest of the listening experience. You can feel the conscious hand of the band writing the songs, as if you were watching them write the lyrics on the page, which I find to be incredibly interesting, which is in part due to the fact that the record sounds very organic. The guitar parts are interesting without coming across like they’re trying too hard, a skill that even some veterans of the scene still haven’t found yet. While Moose Blood can easily fit in with the rest of this emo “scene,” the band doesn’t really feel like a copycat, but more so their own entity. “Boston,” which is a re-recorded song off of one of their previous releases, sounds absolutely incredible on I’ll Keep You in Mind…, and I’m really happy they took the time to actually re-record the song instead of just plopping it into the mix. The record is dynamic, but doesn’t deviate too far away from the genre their predecessors have established. It’s equal parts Taking Back Sunday and blink-182, all wrapped together in a more emo-tinged package. Simply, this record is a really easy listen, which in this case isn’t a bad thing. It’s incredibly comforting, which is a quality bands more often than not try to avoid.

Lyrically, I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time treads very familiar territory for fans of the genre. There’s a lot of songs about missing other people, being alone in beds, drinking, smoking, burning out, basically being ages 16-24. Frankly, if I didn’t like the vocalist’s voice as much as I do, I’d probably find the lyrics to be pretty off-putting. While “Boston” is one of my favorite songs on the record, lyrically it’s pretty weak. You can feel the singer of this band is very fixated on a few moments of loss and love within the record. If you’re at a similar crossroads in your life, you probably won’t even bat an eye, but as with most records of this nature, I can understand how this could be a giant turn-off to some. “Kelly Kapowski” has a pretty cringe-worthy gang vocal section at the end that honestly just doesn’t fit at all. I find the catchiness and melodies of the instrumentation to hide the generally weak lyrics, so touché to them.

Moose Blood is going to be a mainstay in my rotation of records from 2014. I knew that I was probably going to like this record going in, but I was surprised how often I keep hitting repeat. There’s been a lot of records I reviewed pretty high this year, that frankly ran out of steam after 2-3 weeks of listening, but after constant listening for the past few weeks, I can say that this isn’t going anywhere. I’ll Keep You in Mind, From Time to Time is as fine a debut as any, and I’m excited to see where the record takes Moose Blood in the coming year or two (hopefully to the States).

SCORE: 7.5/10
Review written by Tyler Osborne

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Tyler Osborne

Live in DC, grew up in PA. I specialize in writing, filming and taking pictures about punk, pop-punk, and hardcore music, and I also have a huge background in film as well. When not on the site, i'm running my own internet radio show, ToZ's Edge Radio (www.facebook.com/tozedgeradio). I also love stage diving and goldfish.

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