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Jun 06, 2016 Issue # 57 - M83 By Jim Scott

Spencer Krug’s latest record as Moonface ditches the singer/songwriter nakedness of Julia With Blue Jeans On and the City Wrecker EP for a fuller sound. My Best Human Face lands close to the one-off ‘80s spirit of 2011’s Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped, sounding something like a drunken Tangerine Dream soundtrack. The Finnish band Siinai backs Krug, as they did on the excellent Heartbreaking Bravery, but My Best Human Face loses some of that record’s focus in favor of freedom.

“City Wrecker” is recast as a dark funk number, and the lyrics feel less mournful in their new surroundings. Lines like, “And I love her/So I step onto the ice/While you possess the common sense/To demand paradise,” now seem like a recounting of events, and there’s something chilling in the remove.

“Them Call Themselves Old Punks” floats between self-chastisement and cultural critique, punctuated by a burrowing drumbeat. “Ugly Flower Pretty Vase” is the album’s most straightforward rock track; the synths and keys that elsewhere move in and out of the music like smoke serve a more percussive purpose here. The album closer, “The Queen of Both Darkness and Light,” has all the hallmarks of a grand climactic love scene (“I have come to bend my knee” goes the chorus), and the final admission of Krug: “I never planned to be/This shitty singer/That you see come/Slither through your door/I always planned to be something/A little bit something/A little bit more.” The driving “Prairie Boy” contains thunder sound effects, adding to the overwhelming cinematic landscape. It’s the album’s highlight, a muscular car chase of a song that toes the line of being absolutely ridiculous. This seems to be the goal, to tightrope sentimentality and emotion, sarcasm and genuineness, spoof and homage, and to that end, My Best Human Face succeeds. (www.moonface.ca)

Author rating: 6/10