I Only See the Moon

Now over a decade into their partnership, the Milk Carton Kids have well established their technical prowess on their instruments -- Kenneth Pattengales virtuosic fingerpicking and Joey Ryans top-drawer rhythm guitar -- their winsome vocal harmonies, and their penchant for languid, often solemn songcraft. While their first three studio albums were strictly duo affairs, they expanded their recording lineup for the first time (to ten) with 2018s All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didnt Do before returning to a two-piece for the intimate The Only Ones the following year. While its another duo outing at its core, sixth album I Only See the Moon strikes an as-yet-evasive balance, adding a string ensemble to its cinematic title track and bringing in an accordion and bass to accompany haunting closer "Will You Remember Me?," while also experimenting more with their songwriting style. The aforementioned, solo-sung "I Only See the Moon," for instance, falls closer in line with a Michel Legrand 1960s movie ballad than to a folk dirge, and "One True Love" embraces a more traditional folk in the vein of someone like Sam Amidon, even incorporating banjo (as does the self-referential "When Youre Gone"). While the majority of the songs here still favor the melancholy, "Body & Soul" is nothing short of invigorating, and tracks like "All of the Time in the World to Kill" and "Running on Sweet Smile" fall somewhere in between lively and plaintive. Taken together, I Only See the Moons more diversified approach is an engaging one that, frankly, evades the potential slog of some of the Kids prior LPs without surrendering heartache, nostalgia, or slow tempos and grace in the process. ~ Marcy Donelson