Moonbabies are yet another Swedish band making indie-pop that’s smooth, cute, and hypnotic. Twee mixed with shoegaze, sunny electronica-pop…whatever you want to call it, they do it well. Is it something in the water there in Sweden that makes everyone so fey? This song (the first I heard from them and still my favorite) is on the Grey’s Anatomy Volume 2 soundtrack, joining pretty much anyone who’s anyone these days in being featured on that show:
I had a classic “early aughts” moment with this song. I listened to it once months ago and liked it enough to not delete it, but it didn’t catch me so much that I paid particular attention. So it went into the “listen to later” folder with about 1000 other songs. I didn’t hear it again for months until I was doing laundry with my iPod on shuffle and I went nuts. How in the world I let it get by me the first time, I have no idea.
If you’ve liked any of the other twee/indie bands I’ve talked about recently (Bedroom Eyes, Antarctica Takes It!, The Weepies, or The Shins, frankly), you’ll love this song.
Don’t be fooled though. While this songs is “twee as fuck,” they’ve got a lot broader scope. They never exactly rock, but they certainly do post-rock, demonstrating that while there’s some Belle and Sebastian going on here, they also have a similar flavor to bands like My Bloody Valentine, Kate Bush, and Architecture in Helsinki. I’ve been told that their earler stuff goes even further in this direction, but only their recent albums are on eMusic, so that’s all I can personally speak to right now.
Buy the War on Sound mini-album, or wait until early next year for their 3rd full-length from the Swedish label Startracks/V2. And, you can download Sun A.M. off 2004’s The Orange Billboard from their website, or check out their myspace to listen to a few more tunes.