There’s something uniquely cathartic about the marriage of bright, gleaming synth pop textures with tortured emo lyricism that you get on Moody Joody’s debut EP. Maybe it’s how it speaks to the time we live in and how one might stick on a smile to mask their real anxiety amid an increasingly uncertain world. Maybe it acts as a reminder to me to keep on marching through as the glimmering music adds that note of hope. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for great hooks and glittery pop production. Spoilers: it’s all three.
Dream Girl starts where all good emo projects should: at absolute rock bottom. ‘Ground Control’ is a strident pop banger, oozing with effortless exuberance, that nonetheless paints a bleak picture of someone losing their way in an increasingly modern world, such that the only possible escape might be in a rocket ship bound for the stars. It’s a gutsy way to start an EP, especially paired with a tune that infectious. However, mistake this band’s withdrawn, distant persona for perfection at your own risk. ‘Dream Girl’ is a grandiose, swing for the fences anthem that warns potential partners of their humanity that lurks beneath, disregarding the possibility that this person might love them regardless, or indeed that there’s any possibility that they could be loved at all. It’s what’s not being said that makes this EP the emotional rush that it is.
This continues on ‘Cuts Deep’ where the partner in question might be absolutely dreamy, but anxieties are left to linger as they refuse to make a proper move, anxieties that are only emphasised by the ever so slightly rickety production. Both this and ‘Velvet Connection’ show that this band’s grasp of restraint is on par with their ability to craft soaring reverb-soaked hooks, leaving Dream Girl feeling surprisingly diverse despite running to a lean twenty minutes.
It ends on a strong note too, first with the reminiscence of a past relationship on ‘El Camino High’ where the hope remains that some of that connection could be rekindled, and ‘Pass The Time’ which erupts into pummelling distortion at the three minute mark against the lyric “I’ve been living life just to pass the time”. It’s dark, but it’s the mundane kind of darkness that’s possible to live through, even if it does just feel like ‘passing the time’. The shimmering catchiness of the track and the EP as a whole does at least imply the potential of a brighter path ahead, but, once again, that’s the trick of this EP. It’s about what’s not being said.
Moody Joody: Dream Girl – Out 8 November 2024 (Photo Finish Records)
Joody – Cuts Deep (Official Visualizer / Lyric Video)
