The Moonbabies

Moonbabies at the Ballroom (Hidden Agenda)

By Emily Becker
Published: June 26th, 2007 | 11:38am

Moonbabies at the Ballroom plays like the soundtrack for the perfect summer day. On their latest full-length, Swedish duo Carina Johannson and Ola Frick craft songs that reach the listener like fractured sunlight coming through the an open window. Things start off slow with “21st Century Heart” rousing the senses like the gentlest alarm clock. “War on Sound,” which was already been snapped up by Grey’s Anatomy, is the kind of gently pleasing pop tune that makes anyone admit it’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day.

On “Cocobelle,” a tuneful mix of strings, acoustic guitar, and electronica that recalls the Flaming Lips, Frick sings, “There’s no place that I would rather be / We have all the time in the world.” This sentiment pervades the entire record. Originality, however, does not. “Walking on my Feet” sounds like it belongs on one of Steve Winwood’s 1970s solo records. “Shout it Out” rips its main melody right from the heart of “Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals. But all should be forgiven because Moonbabies at the Ballroom is here, like Calgon, to take you away, and a little wholesale musical thievery doesn’t distract from its ultimate purpose.

The last three tracks take the listener through to the end of the day. “The Ninth,” the record’s only slow song, conjures up how the air cools, the sun sets, but the day isn’t over. “Weekend a go go” is the up-tempo second wind that leads into “Dancing in the Sky,” where Johannson and Frick are swept off into the starlit ether, just as the ballroom lights go dark.