Review: John Moreland – Birds In The Ceiling

On the latest effort from singer/songwriter John Moreland, called Birds in the Ceiling, he remains at his most captivating version of himself as he sings in-depth poetic verses over a vast landscape of sound. The nine-track set was produced by Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, The Breeders), whom he also collaborated on the great LP5 album. Moreland sounds like a man who’s coming fully engulfed into the sound that he has carefully crafted over the course of his musical career, and he continues to win audiences over with his transcendent vocals and brilliant guitar playing. Much like LP5, Moreland is open to musical experimentation with ambient sounds and electronic beats in the background to bring further texture to the picture he paints on Birds in the Ceiling.

Read More “John Moreland – Birds In The Ceiling”

Review: John Moreland – LP5

On John Moreland ‘s fifth solo record, aptly titled LP5, he takes an exploratory dive into working with an outside producer for the first time in his solo career. His producer selection in Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, The Breeders) fits like a glove as the production and songwriting elements that were already a strong suit of Moreland’s repertoire really shine on the album. Moreland recently said in an interview regarding his producer choice that, “I wouldn’t say that he pushed me into trying anything that I didn’t already want to do, but I think I came in with a lot of ideas that I found interesting but didn’t know how to execute. Matt was great at expanding on those things.” This American singer-songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has never been a stranger to writing great roots rock songs that feel as genuine and as warm as the singer’s personality. LP5 is by no means a departure from his already great sound, he expands upon it with more textured musical elements to give these songs a little more life.

Read More “John Moreland – LP5”

Review: John Moreland – Big Bad Luv

A former punk, hardcore, and metalcore singer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, John Moreland made one of the greatest and most pervasively sad country records of the decade so far with 2015’s High on Tulsa Heat. “I’m so damn good at sorrow,” he sang in one of the LP’s key tracks, and he was right. Most of the songs were driven by little more than acoustic guitar and voice, and the lyrics were so heavy and despairing that the record was tough to listen to more than once in a multi-day span. If you were hurting for just about any reason, though, that album could be your best friend.

Read More “John Moreland – Big Bad Luv”