Return to the Moon is the debut studio album by American indie rock band EL VY, released on October 30, 2015, on 4AD. A collaboration between Matt Berninger (singer for The National) and Brent Knopf (Ramona Falls, Menomena), the two musicians had befriended one another on tour and exchanged sketches of music and lyrics for years, before getting together in the winter of 2014 to formally record an album.
Reception
Return to the Moon was met with a largely favorable reception from music critics. On Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Josh Modell of The A.V. Club praised Return to the Moon as "one of the best albums of 2015" and proclaimed that "it stands shoulder to miserable, brilliant shoulder" next to Berninger's work with The National. In his 4 out of 5 star review for NME, Rob Cooke drew comparisons to Knopf's former band, Menomena, writing that "fans of the brilliantly inventive art-rock band...will find lots to love in "Paul Is Alive"'s sparse, springy synths, the claustrophobic crunch of "Sad Case" and the brittle post-punk of "Happiness, Missouri"." Critics were divided by the recontextualization of Berninger's songwriting and vocals with Knopf's keyboard-heavy arrangements - while Rolling Stone expressed that "Matt Berninger has never sounded more like himself", Pitchfork labeled the project "muddled and confused, unsure of a clear direction to take."
Accolades Publication Accolade Rank Drowned in Sound Drowned in Sounds Favourite Albums of the Year 2015 Gigwise Gigwises Albums of the Year 2015 The Line of Best Fit The Fifty Best Albums of 2015 The Best International Albums of 2015 The Skinny The 50 Best Albums of 2015 Under the Radar Under the Radars Top 100 Albums of 2015
Track listing All songs written by Matt Berninger and Brent Knopf; additional lyrics written by Carin Besser.
Personnel EL VY Matt Berninger Brent Knopf Matt Sheehy - touring member Andy Stack - touring member
Additional musicians Drew Shoals - drums John O'Reilly Jr. - drums Lauren Jacobson - violin Ural Thomas, Moorea Masa, Allison Hall, and Margaret Wehr - backing vocals
Production Brent Knopf - production, engineering Craig Silvey - mixing Greg Calbi - mastering Jeff Stuart Saltzman - drum engineering Tim Shrout - drum engineering and editing assistance Sean O'Brien - vocal engineering Eduardo de la Paz - mixing assistance Zach Stamler - editing assistance Matt Sheehy - editing assistance
Artwork Deirdre O'Callaghan - photography John Solimine - logo design Alison Fielding - packaging layout
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (2015) Peakposition
Year-end charts Chart (2015) Position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 166
References