Recommended
Moth is a 2016 synthpop album from the indie band Chairlift. It is their third and final studio album before their disbandment in April of 2017.
The album's sound is colored by satisfying synth sounds, with a hint of jazz and funkesque instrumentation being present on the album. However, “Unfinished Business” is much more ambient than the other tracks on the album, with comparatively less instrumentation present on the album than other tracks. The synthpop sensibilities on the album are strongest on the track “Show U Off”, a track that I would argue has lots of chart-topping potential, with its very poppy instrumentation, vocal delivery, and lyrics. The fact that so many personnel worked on this album goes to show how sonically vast some of the album's instrumentals are, with a whopping 25 people contributing to the album either technically or musically.
Speaking of vocal delivery, lead singer Caroline Polacheck's vocal delivery is very elegant on this album; she easily pulls off high notes, and makes the lyrics of this album pop out. The only part of the album in which the vocal delivery has issues is during the track “Ch-Ching”, the chorus of which has Polacheck singing the line “Ch-Ching”. Polacheck's high-pitched delivery of this line, along with its repetition throughout the song, makes it a mildly grating listen (that is rescued by the verses, which are more in line with the rest of the album in terms of quality).
Moth's lyrics are very poppish, with mostly simplistic lyrics throughout the album's runtime that work well due to Polacheck's vocal delivery. The track “Crying in Public” mostly avoids this, with very vivid and well-written lyrics.
My favorite tracks from Moth are “Polymorphing”, “Crying in Public”, and “Show U Off”.
Overall, Moth is a poppy, satisfying listen, that has a few minor shortcomings that don't detract that much from the enjoyment factor of the album. It's quite a shame that this was Chairlift's final album as I feel like if they had had the chance to craft a fourth studio album that they would've refined their sound even further and fixed the few issues this album has.