Ernest Moon’s Skipping to Maloo is a warm embrace of mellow instrumentals, sonorous vocals and poetic lyrics. 

Ernest Moon, a two-piece band consisting of Brian Murphy and Steve Doran from Liverpool, describe themselves as “homemade cranberry sauce on your pie and chips” and it’s perhaps one of the most accurate self-descriptors of a musician’s work I’ve come across.

The pie and chips of their comforting smooth sound are interwoven with the homemade cranberry sauce of their lavish instrumental episodes of sweeping strings, gritty guitar solos and fluttering winds and poetic vocals. Every song, therefore, has both a laid-back yet transcendent feel; a chilled-out and riled-up mood, an aesthetic that is rather difficult to achieve in music and rarely heard these days.

Their starter song Talooh Ray has a rather sensual vibe, with a growling guitar ostinato that works its way through a sliding, tremulous violin and vocals which, although monotone and conversational sounding, feel like deep musical bells chiming in your ear. 

This vibe is also present in their track Some Tea which is a creative retelling of a passionate encounter between individuals. At this point in the album, I realised that the thing that is so imaginative about Ernest Moon’s work is their combination of a mellow 70s sound, blues with a modern grit and frankness, and a rock feel.

Unkind moves away from this mood, being related to treating people the way you wish to be treated. The hook “Don’t waste your time not being nice / don’t waste your life being unkind” certainly sticks with you. The simplicity and relevance of the message is poignant and delivered with some of the richest vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Brian says of it, “I wanted the chorus to be as simply written as possible. An innocent plea in a narcissistic age.”

This gentler mood is something we also hear in She Forgot Her Kiss Goodbye, where the blues and country sound in Ernest Moon’s work becomes clearer, as does the meaning of the song, a necessary but painful parting between two individuals.   

My favourite song of the album is definitely The Cotswolds; there is hypnotic whimsical energy to the track with the lyrics that evoke a sort of existential crisis with words like “You used to be so cool now you don’t know what to do… I wasn’t always such a spoiler / I was sensitive and shy.” It’s utterly compelling, dark and enlightening all at once.

You can certainly hear what they describe as their musical influences throughout the album, the sounds of Talking Heads and The Blockheads with their distinct combination of rock, blues and frank vocals. Many of their songs also really reminded me of the musical colouring that The Smiths create in this way. 

Overall, the album is utterly magnetising, entrancing and invigorating, I could happily listen to Ernest Moon reciting and performing the back of a cereal box, such is the appeal and draw of their sound.