Post-rock music is not for everyone. I get that. It can come across as esoteric and snobbish, with its creators exalting how it showcases music in its purest form, allowing it to go places songs with lyrics can not. And this is true in part — in most post-rock songs the thought of adding words to any well-crafted tune is an impossible task.
Which makes Sweden’s Moonlit Sailor somewhat of an anomaly. While ranging and inventive, Moonlit Sailor stays within enough lines where lyrics could accompany its post-rock creations without much effort. In its latest release Colors in Stereo, the band’s ringing arpeggios and drum breaks often beg for a well-placed lyric, but suffice to say the album remains stalwart absent a human voice. Through its 10 songs, Colors happily charges along and shakes off the detritus other post-rock bands encounter in their nine-minute sagas. Moonlit Sailor is dealing in post-pop here, and it’s a treat.
The opening track “Kodac Moment” and penultimate song “Clarity” best capture this pop feel. “Kodac’s” gentle guitar at the song’s outset has the ballady feel of a ’70s arena rock band, while a second guitar chimes in at spots where words could easily be. Two minutes in the drums erupt and “Kodac” becomes a different song, but the guitar peals through emphatically, as if trying to finish a thought. And then its done in three and a half minutes — on a post-rock record.
“Clarity” shines in the way great Brit-pop does – the uplifting song envisions a swaying crowd of beaming smiles and merry hearts. Yeah, I know it sounds sappy, but joyful pop music does that to people.Colors does fall into the trap post-rock often does, as some tracks ape one another and familiar refrains can be noted here and there. But Moonlit Sailor is quick to dispel the monotony and turn a rote passage into an effective pathway (“May Day” does this best, the song’s final minute of churning guitar and echo is sublime, as good as any minute on the album).
So leave it to the Swedes, land of Ace of Base and Abba, to turn post-rock into a pop pastime. It’s not quite “Dancing Queen” — but Moonlit Sailor can certainly feel the beat.
