Mortal Prophets - Hide Inside The Moon
You are in danger of wandering into the convoluted world that Mortal Prophets sets out for us if you plan on listening to his music. He is known for creating a unique style of imagery for each of his songs, and in this album, it is no different. Known for his genre-bending abilities, John Beckman, in each song, gives his listeners a lingering brackish taste, making you confront all the feelings that are usually stowed away. So a lot of his art at some point evolves into a confrontation of the inner thoughts and feelings, making them rise to consciousness. Mortal Prophets and Mad Girl's Love Song Each song is laced with a sense of longing for a future that might not hold us entirely. I say this because their first song is Sylvia Plath’s poem sung out. While the poem speaks of how she made up an idea of her lover and love itself, it is disillusionment that sets her free. A fundamental truth about love is that it is largely a gamble, and the next few songs embody that very spirit. That tug of war between love, acceptance, and surveillance is embellished with a beat structure that feels like a constant hover, waiting to swoop in while his voice comes at you like a consistent hum! Devil Doll "Devil Doll" is where the album slowly changes pace and atmosphere. While the album still has a gritty texture to it, we hear a touch of light, airy sounds that fluctuate between eerie and airy. The song gives us such intense imagery to build on. He does all this with notes that are sharp at the right places; in others, they bend and drift into the unknown, and the choir is the same as well. His voice is laced with the right amount of gruff to sell the song. Twilight's Last Embrace While I would love to say he doesn’t hold back, he very much does vocally. That is what sets his voice so distinctly apart. It feels as though you are listening to his voice through water, perfectly muffled. He offers precise imagery, with shimmering sounds that are still a distance away. This is the same feeling the song gives us; the vocals are perfectly mellow and restrained enough for you to stare into the depths the song has to offer. The song builds a comfortable yet eerie environment to close on. Mortal prophet offers up the world to our imagination—bare, gritty, dirty, and still somehow beautiful. The gothic yet shiny architecture of his musical world, I must say, is somewhat similar to the world that Yorgos Lanthemos offers us in Poor Things. He seems to like opening cans of worms and showcasing the rot of the world poetically, while also telling you this is precisely what makes human beings and the world beautiful. Almost like Hozier but with a little bit of glitter. He seems to be the messiah of music that we currently need.
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