The Milk Carton Kids: “I Only See The Moon” – Realignment (Review & Stream)

There are people who accuse The Milk Carton Kids that each album sounds like an extension of the previous one. “I Only See The Moon” proves otherwise. Sure, it’s still a duo from California. That’s still Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan walking in the ear canal with two guitars and voices whose harmonies sound like Siamese sound twins. It’s still a mix of folk, country and Americana that’s rarely dry, and they’re still songs that hover in the Simon & Garfunkel orbit, somewhere between Avett Brothers and Kings Of
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The Milk Carton Kids remain a fixed star in folk heaven

It’s like this with friends: sometimes you need those who are tried and tested. And sometimes you want to have the adventurous around you. On this album, The Milk Carton Kids succeed for the first time in being both: intimate and relaxed, shy and virtuoso, surprising and well-tried. After the duo returned to their minimalist basics on their latest record, The Only Ones, I Only See The Moon again approaches the temperature of 2018’s All The Things That I Did And All The Things That I Didn’ t Thu”.

The Grammy-nominated album was produced much more expansively at the time, testing strings, keys and horns. Strings also appear on “I Only See The Moon”, but what is particularly new is the interweaving of banjo sounds (“When You’re Gone”, “One True Love”). The title song is particularly impressive: film music, heavy, carrying and different from what we are used to from The Milk Carton Kids. Also strong: the tongue-twister number “Body & Soul”, the melancholic and brittle “Wheels And Levers” and the six-minute “North Country Ride”, which convinces with blues lines, melancholy and choir. This album teeters like a lamp through heartbreaking nights, when you realize what’s missing and what you want to remember. All ten songs, whether celebratory or filigree, have their own magic. The Milk Carton Kids remain a fixed star in folk heaven.

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