On the album cover of Blood Moon, by Apes & Androids, a child sits in their bed, stares out their window, and sees what could only be the moon bleeding in the sky. Vibrant, neon red light coats everything in the room but this child, who can do nothing but gaze terrified and transfixed. This image perfectly encapsulates the eclectic album: one lush with varied, unique and eccentric sounds that could very well have originated from aliens living on a blood moon. On a similar note, one can only be surprised when traversing through the space-like, electronic sounds of Blood Moon, as the album propels those who listen to it on an intense musical journey. To bring this creative and evocative journey to life, Apes & Androids utilize themes of distortion, distance, and disorientation to create the alien air within their music. Additionally, though released in 2008, the album sounds more like a mix between 80s rock and 90s R&B than anything from the 2000s. However, the album’s sound leans more towards a rock album than anything else. All in all, the album is compositionally ambitious, vocally harmonious, extremely original, and melodically entrancing, if at times too lyrically abstract, repetitive, and soft.
Alongside their older sounds, Apes & Androids bring a new alien element to their album, heard in their distorted instruments, vocal choices, and unique composition. Examples of this original sound can be found in the drum beat within their lead single “Golden Prize.” What makes the beat so alien are the strange effects played by the instruments supplementing the drums: an example of which is an electric buzzing that almost sounds like a kazoo. Singing “my car’s drunked and the limousine’s polished like a golden prize” breathily and to the chittering beat, David Tobias and Brian Jacobs, the lead vocalists of the band, use their voices to emphasize the alien sound. Furthermore, in another standout song on the track, “Hot Kathy,” the instruments sound similar to the flimsy ring of a metal sheet being shook and the sharp whistle of air being sucked in from a straw. The overall sound of the album is stunning and experimentally delicious, able to be voraciously consumed by any listener hungry for a rhythmic-centric style of rock.
Apes & Androids successfully compose both their songs on an individual level and the album as a whole, using complex structural strategies to create their sound. In both “Golden Prize” and “Hot Kathy,” the band employs a unique three part song structure. The songs consist of a catchy and beat-filled refrain, a repetitive softer sounding section, and haunting vocals. The album as a whole parallels this structure: the first eight songs are centered around catchy beats and forceful, memorable melodies (such as “Golden Prize” and “Hot Kathy”); the middle five songs are characterized by softer rock sounds; while the final five songs are very haunting with their harmonious vocalization. Overall, the album varies itself and keeps an original tone, apart from the sometimes too repetitive middle section. Where the album’s structure differentiates itself from its song structure lies in its shorter and experimental songs: “Blood Moon I,” “And Now,” and “Blood Moon II.” These songs mark the beginning, middle, and end of the album, anchoring the listener in non-instrumental sounds: such as a rocket ship blasting off in “Blood Moon I,” or a narrator speaking untranslatable, alien words in “And Now.” The composition of the album feels very specific to the theme of distance – it’s almost as if Apes & Androids purposefully designed their album in three parts. The first part straps the listener into a rocket and blasts them into space, the middle part lands on the moon, and the last part gently guides the listener back to Earth.
Although very original, Blood Moon still is comparable to many other albums, for Blood Moon employs many compositional styles that can remind one of many other bands. The first section combines David Bowie’s airy, choppy aesthetic and the ferocious drum beats of Michael Jackson, but with a buzzing, rubber-band sounding twist present through most of the songs. Instead of a “Space Oddity,” the album’s first part functions more like a space odyssey, whose ship is powered by the electric currents of “Remember the Time.” The second part of the album is a worse, knock-off version of Radiohead: songs such as “Nights of the Week” and “Will I Live” try to match the sound of “Exit Music (for a film)” and “Karma Police,” though fail in composition, effect, and beauty. The songs are repetitive, and dynamically too quiet and soft. The final third of the album is a haunting mix of ELO and Jeff Buckeley, combining the beautiful instrumentals of “Fire on High” and vocals of “Corpus Christi” and “Lilac Wine,” but with a unique electric twist. All in all, the album nears the legendary sound of the bands and singers they sound like in section one and three, but fail in section two. Moreover, the lyrics of the album are simply not good: many songs sound like a mix of Daft Punk and LMFAO, and in the others they try to copy the surreal sound of Radiohead, but fail due to over-abstraction. Three of their songs do have engaging lyrics, however. “Nights of the Week,” “Locked in a Car,” and “Riverside” all successfully invoke poetic language and thoughts of estrangement. In fact, the lyrics that best speak to the album’s message are from “Riverside”: “she wore her/ head up tall/ in case the tears fall far/ now sometimes she thinks I'd/ had it all/ when I was small.” They remind the listener that the album at its core is about distortion and being seen as something one is not.
The most engaging parts of Blood Moon are its composition, vocals, and originality; while its thematic depth is ripe for blossoming, its lyrics fail to help this album transcend. If the album had lyrics that were more clear and profound, it would have better shaped the album’s message, which would have caused me to rethink the ranking of this album. Though I personally believe Blood Moon is a superb album with high levels of danceability, catchy tunes, and memorable moments, its poorly executed second part and overall lyrical failure cause me to rank it a 6.5 out of ten. The album is better than what any average rock band could make, but it does not compare to legendary albums such as Radiohead’s Ok, Computer or Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Despite moments of boredom, the album still manages to bring you home. The album finishes with the experimental closing track "Blood Moon II": birds fly around, the gentle sounds of a landing rattle your spaceship, and the album fizzles to an end. Even if the journey was bumpy and at times slow – suspended in the middle of the void – when you land, you will never forget the experience.