There is no denying that in the Moon Loses Her Memory, Irish singer/songwriter Cormac O Caoimh has taken his musicality a notch up. Compared to New Season of Love which is insular, this one sounds expansive. An album exploring the outside world. There is this undeniable explosive nature in every track(even the quite ones). Having a mastery of Jazz Bossa and Irish folk, he uses these influence to create an upbeat album that goes down easily like awesome coffee. Maze of Your Heart, Yellow Crumbs, the title track The Moon Loses its Memory, Thirst and Water and Solid all take you to a jazzy and poppy ride. You Stole December and the tracks that follow exude a different mood. These songs are meant for sitting down.
His voice is smooth as always and he sometimes reminds me of Sting. But he really sounds like no other. Place a Letter on My Front Porch is one of the sweetest pop songs I’ve heard in a decade. There are also other tracks that sound like a fusion of different styles like in the case of Basement. I think the funky guitar rifts and sense of suspense in each verse are clever. I think the positioning of the tracks works in a sense that he placed the ‘pop’ songs in the first half of the album and leave the ‘ experimental’ ones on the second half.
Vocalist Aoife Regand also contributed her smooth vocals in various tracks including the hypnotic Lay Low for Awhile. I admire the violin of Clum Pettit as well as the percussion works of Cormac O’Connor. And lastly, the liner notes are beautiful courtesy of photographer William Crowley.
The indie music blog 