Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio we’ve been taking a listen today to Monroe Moon’s latest single, Just a Little Bit Longer. We previously reviewed their Morcheeba-influenced track, “War” and loved the chilled-out vibes.
Monroe Moon, from Grand Rapids, MI describe their music as “sexy melancholic drowning”. Yes! That. They’ve clearly thought long and hard about how best to describe themselves, and whilst on initial reading, we were a little confused, it all became clear once we listened. Monroe Moon are Theo Malkin and Bunny Monroe. Describing how they met; “One spring evening while out and about, Bunny complimented a stranger on his scarf”. We just love this kind of randomness that leads to creative connections.
Just A Little Bit Longer is a smooth, chill-out vibes track. A relaxing lo-fi study vibes song that washes over the listener and forces you to take a moment to be calm and in the moment.
With a definite Portishead vibe, Bunny’s vocals are gentle, warm and effortless. With some beautiful reverbs on the vocal, her vocal is very pleasing to listen to. This has a trip-hop vibe to it and has some touches of Massive Attack.
The choruses are brought to life with the addition of some extra guitar strums. This helps the rise and fall of the track. We especially loved how the chord sequence remained the same throughout but it was the variation in dynamics that keeps this song engaging.
The guitar solo is warm and simple with repetition. The notes that are chosen, and the way it is played suggest that the solo is all taken on one string, with some very smooth slides between each note. This is really effective and adds to the laid-back feel.
Ideas from our ears
A hi-pass filter at 35Hz followed by a boost around 75Hz and a cut around 140-150Hz would balance out the low end a bit, increasing the warmth and thickness in the track as well as reducing a ‘boxy’ tone in the kick drum. A small cut around 300Hz would lower the occasional ‘muddy’ tone too. This, combined with a high shelf boost in the top 3 octaves and an additional boost around 4.5-5kHz will increase the clarity and brightness in the track. It will also bring out the higher frequency elements in the flowing ride cymbal and the vocal lines.
Final words
Monroe Moon are fast becoming one of our go-to bands for relaxing and chilling out. A beautiful track.