Moonbabies – Moonbabies at the Ballroom (Hidden Agenda)

I discovered this album through a poorly written set of user reviews on emusic. I shouldn’t be surprised that once in a pale blue moon, little diamonds can be found among heaps of ill-informed user generated endorsements. But Moonbabies are lovely. The band genre hops between old school shoegazing (a la Pale Saints, Lush, My Bloody Valentine) and modern folktronica (Zero 7, Beth Orton, Mojave 3), alternating between the lush vocal tracks and the upbeat vocals of Swddish duo Ola Frick and Carina Johansson.

Oddly enough this is the kind of record that could be playing at some plastically hip coffee shop, with people paying barely enough attention to feel at ease that their caffeine is infused with hipness, but not enough to realize how good it is. Most of the songs tend to drift along on a cloud of easiness, cheery but not sweet, jazzy but not stuffy, electronic but not artificial. Sometimes a record is best not being very complicated, bust being what it is. This one is just that, steeped in an vaguely obscure past but anchored in a modern present.