PREMIERE | The Moon Baby, 'The One You Need'
Dripping in 90s Jean Paul Gaultier, styled by Ann Artist, makeup by Ruairi Fran and photographed by Vince Guglielmo.
The living daylights cast the focus on a world set ablaze. A world under water. Consumed by storms; naturally as a result of climate change and socially / civically as a result of regressive policies and a world lacking in a genuine love and care for one another (and itself). With the demands of the day wrapped up into paying bills, paying rent, juggling jobs, quitting jobs, starting new jobs, gigs, dealing with trauma and the endless daunting tasks of trying to figure it all out — we are in pursuit of a new night. The allure of nocturnes that offer a queer-centric escape of fancy free expressions, a world of love, desires and a luster that twinkles and shines like a technicolor disco ball that shines with a light of hope and humanity for a weary and beleaguered world. Emerging to vanquish the destitution of the day as the empress of ecstatic evenings and mesmerizing midnights is Philly queen The Moon Baby who presents the anticipated allure of their opus The One You Need. Produced by Pittsburgh’s own Troxum, the record is orchestrated to be truly the only thing you need to feel, live and love more wholly and truly. Moon Baby blesses us with a unique gift of beauty and light to inspire all those suffering, disheartened, disenfranchised and more by the perils of late capitalism and other associated ills and assorted forces of oppression and adversity.
The One You Need is a gateway into the realm of all that is ever desired and needed in this crazy thing called life. Opener "Afters" glimmers and glows like a palatial, ornate chamber suite materialized from the furthest extents of otherworldly tiers of imagination. Leading into the title track, passions are expressed with urgent desires and purposes that guides gracefully into the glistening nu-disco runway razzle dazzle of "Super Natural" that throws style composites of Erasure, Madge and Gaga into a blender for an even more glamorous synthesis. The Moon Baby keeps the beats bubbling and bopping on the sultry and geared up "Bike Stop", before upping the dramatic ante with the arpeggiated aura of "Yours Truly" that sings out like a lunar nocturne from the corners of the galaxy.
The lunar love of Moon Baby; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Lurid love songs thump, pulse, shimmer and shake in the carnal car cravings of "'95 Corolla", before firing the listener out to the edges of eternity on the laser bright luster of "Sedna". The Moon Baby busts out the big blades on the boisterous, beautiful and bad "Pretty Knife", singing a song of spats and the indiscretions from younger eras on "Cruel Youth", right before entering the illustrious subterranean abysses of energy with "Adrenalina". The penultimate banger "Everyday I Just Get More Free" is a shining example of The Moon Baby firing on all rocket turbines in a unified lifted sound, concluding with the celestial infinity ceiling of "Fancy" that is finely manicured and designed like an ornate conceptualization of paradise channeled through the gift and talent of sound and undeniable style.
The myriad fashions and styles of The Moon Baby; press photo courtesy of the artist.
The Moon Baby presented some exclusive reflections on the new album:
Looking back at the making of this album, it feels like a fever dream night out with my friends — and that's really what the album is about anyway. One of the opening lines in the first track is like a dream through a polished horn, I see you. It breaks me free. The dreams Penelope had through horn and ivory in the Odyssey awaiting the return of her husband seem a fitting thesis for The One You Need. Over the last two years we have all been Penelope in a way, missing our loved ones, missing the things we love — and unsure when we receive a taste of them if we can trust them to be real. This album is my truth, it is my dream through a polished horn and the people and experiences I sing about — those are the things that break me free. Working with Troxum on this was such a wild ride, his knowledge of music is immense and his care for what we wanted to do together is evident in every song. Some of these songs I wrote five or six years ago, some came to me the moment Troxum sent over a demo loop. I've never worked this collaboratively before and the result is something you've never heard from Troxum or the Moon Baby before. Gay people rule the world.
The Moon Baby’s album The One You Need will be available now everywhere.