Honey Moon Drips

Kamtin Mohager (aka Chain Gang of 1974) crafts a shimmering pop dreamscape on his fourth album, 2020s Honey Moon Drips. The album follows 2017s Felt and again showcases his long-held love of bands like Tears for Fears, OMD, and Depeche Mode as he dives deeper into a blissed-out 80s synth pop atmosphere. Theres a more languid vibe to Honey Moon Drips than Felt, where even the most brightly anthemic moments like Do You Mind and the electric-guitar accented Philosophy of Love are shot through with a blue-tinted melancholy. Its a tone Mohager sets from the start on his brief 49-second title track intro in which he coos The Honey Moon Drips on and on... over wavering keyboard swells and sparkling piano accents. Its a deeply cinematic beginning to the album -- the cinema in question landing somewhere in between Blade Runner, Pretty in Pink, and whatever movie best evokes the feeling of having fallen asleep on the couch and waking up at dusk, just as the sun is setting (Slacker? Lost in Translation?). More liminal atmospherics follow on Giving It Up, The Hurt Is Good, and Times That We Had, in which Mohager frames his yearning, hushed vocals against refracted electronic drums, faraway keyboards, and fluorescent basslines. Elsewhere, he collaborates with Los Angeles electronic duo TWINKIDS on the buoyant Bends, and creates a tantalizing combination of the Cure and M83 on cuts like Champagne Saturday and Such a Shame. Honey Moon Drips is an ethereal, slow-burning production that nonetheless holds you in its spectral beauty. ~ Matt Collar