January 13, 2012

Boy & Bear - 'Moonfire'

Nu-folk with a very short life span

Album Info

Release Date: January 16, 2012
Producer: Joe Chicarelli
Label: Communion
Fact: In 2010 they toured with Laura Marling

4 / 10 We’ve enough guitar-toting faux-folk troupes in Britain already without Australia sending us theirs too. As with much of the current middle-class boho milieu foot-stomping its way to prominence with relentlessly chipper vim, Boy And Bear know their way round a melody and a chorus; yet their rootsy rattle’n’roll fails to connect with anything more grabbing than a vague lyrical nostalgia. Songs like ‘Feeding Line’ and ‘My Only One’ are delivered with the earnest passion of nothing at all, while ‘Golden Jubilee’ is a heavily buffed hoe-down for the trust-fund masses. If indie once became landfill, ‘Moonfire’ is nu-folk of the highest biodegradability.

Simon Jay Catling

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Average rating

8.3

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