Moore goes back to nature and to create a bucolic beauty of an EP.
Riley Moore’s ‘Sweet Boy‘ EP is the first of a series of 3 planned EP releases which builds upon his first album ‘Vagrants‘ which was released in 2018. ‘Sweet Boy‘ consists of 8 songs with two of them being anecdotes about his songs, one is the sound of rain and another song ‘Mansion‘ has two versions with one more stripped back than the other. Moore has lived an itinerant lifestyle – born in Dallas, Texas, moving to Nashville at the age of 3 and Sydney, Australia at the age of 18 where he stated that he wrote his first song, He has since returned to Nashville (living on a boat) and carrying on creating his music along the way writing about his travels, explorations, and travails with warmth and humour.
Riley Moore has created a well-crafted emotionally honest set of songs that were initially recorded while staying in a 200-year-old log cabin with the assistance of Robert Pierce. The EP was later produced by Cheyenne Medders in Nashville who has managed to retain the ruggedness of the music Moore has written. The songs are delicate but not fragile, homespun tales that remind of another musician who made an acclaimed album in a cabin (Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago‘). They reflect the locations in which they were created in making it easy to picture the music being made surrounded by nature.
The opening song ‘a hundred and fifty‘ sits nicely alongside music by Bright Eyes with the song building, using repetition and increased urgency until it ends collapsing at the close of the song. ‘Gold‘ is simply a beautiful song with the line “that’s just what you are, all the gold in my heart” fondling your heartstrings. ‘Stones‘ uses a similar approach to the less bombastic side of Arcade Fire with the song growing towards an emotional crescendo. ‘Mansion‘ showcases Moore’s humour as he sings about “thinking up songs on my second string guitar” wondering about whatever happened to a woman he met envisioning her life since their paths crossed.
It will be interesting to see where Moore’s adventurous nature takes him next, and to hear what songs he is able to write about them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAFn60WJMY
