Album Review: Boxing the Moonlight by Mister Heavenly

It may not be widely known, but Mister Heavenly already have some serious indie rock cred. Not only from their most excellent 2011 debut Out of Love, but also by boasting three indie rock veterans in Nicholas Thorburn (Islands), Ryan Kattner (Man Man), and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, The Shins) ,whose body of work speaks for itself. While they may not qualify as a supergroup, they have an intestinal fortitude super power to eschew conventional rock wisdom and construct peculiar pop tunes rich in bouncy rhythms with crisp bass lines and bursts of energetic keyboards and tight guitar riffs.

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Nick Thorburn and Ryan Kattner’s work has always existed in a realm that feels out of step with the current times. When their first collaborative LP as Mister Heavenly, Out of Love, came out in 2011, indie rock’s moment in the sun was arguably on the wane, and that album’s very particular 50s doo-wop inspired aesthetic made it feel like even more of a throwback. However, the album’s charm was undeniable. The tag team dynamic, which Thorburn and Kattner mastered on the record’s best cuts was the hook that made the whole project so entertaining.

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Released six years after Out of Love, their self-described "doom wop" debut, indie super trio Mister Heavenly regroup with their more muscular sophomore effort, Boxing the Moonlight. Comprised of Ryan Kattner (Man Man), Nick Thorburn (Islands, the Unicorns), and Joe Plummer (the Shins, Modest Mouse), Mister Heavenly first arrived on the scene with a set of pop expectations which, a bit surprisingly, resulted in a dark-hued vamp on early rock and doo wop. For their follow-up, the band pulls from a more diverse sonic palette loosely centered around scrappy power pop with forays into synth pop, Krautrock, and even early-'90s hip-hop beats.

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