Every Single Album - 'Dancing on the Wall' | Every Single Album: MUNA

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

We think MUNA should be a bigger artist. Nora and Nathan break down the fourth album from the indie pop band MUNA. They talk about songs where artists like The 1975, Stevie Nicks, and Don Henley are present (15:42), the breakout hit of "Eastside Girls" (25:38), and where the first half of the album differs from the second (39:45). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan HubbardProducer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to every single album. I'm Nora Princeati and as always, I'm joined by my friend Nathan Hubbard and we're going to chit chat about an album that we discovered a couple weeks ago, I think, maybe our first episode back after we'd been on a little break that we're both pretty excited about, which is the Moona album. Am I right? That was our first episode back, Nathan? I thought we were talking about Moono. The character. from Yo Gabba Gabba. I thought this was the one thing you were going to do on your honeymoon was go watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba so that we could talk for an hour and 15 minutes about the weird, prickly, cucumber, orange thing with one eye named Moono. Hey, Mono. Archibald wants to talk to you. Yeah, hey. Hi, Archibald. Hi, Mono. I need to go to the store.

I'm open to doing that at a different time. However, no, that was not how I used that particular stretch of my life. Well, this album came out May 8th, which, you know, is a date that seems like it might have been relevant to you. So that's when I discovered it. I know. I know. It was actually kind of bad timing because, one, I wanted to go to one of their concerts in New York. And I couldn't because I was on my honeymoon. I mean, it's fine.

But yeah, no, we did listen to it in the, like, all the girls were getting ready in the room together. And we were listening to Munah. I mean, so the album is dancing on the wall. It is the fourth album from a band that I hold pretty near and dear. I don't know that I have cataloged your Moona journey, Nathan. So, like, tell me. My Moona Journey. I mean, I'm like an old straight guy.

Like, how could I even have a Moona Journey? My Moona Journey really, I think that I learned about them through Phoebe. I was not a parishioner before Phoebe. And honestly, Silk Chafon was not my entry point. Like, I heard Silk Chafon, but I was kind of like, Phoebe Bridgers is really putting herself out there for this band. What is happening? And so I started to spend more time with the catalog.

I saw them live at a couple. I saw them live at all things go where they crushed and they're going to be back and play this year. But I fell in love with Home Byte. now. I fell in love with I know a place. I fell in love with winter break. And that's how I really

got into the band. And then I really like Katie Gavin as a songwriter. I was into her solo record. And then when I started hearing this music, look, there are some parallels to the

1975 that we will talk about. For sure. That like from the album construction to what they do sonically, even to in their own way, trying to be political. And so I find that fascinating. I don't think that they think about it that way, but it's an unavoidable thing to talk about. But this band, which I think came out as, you know,

and we're championed by the queer community, this band is for everybody because the songs on this album kick out. I mean, we started to talk about it on the pod, I don't know, a couple episodes ago. And then we got off that pod and we looked at each other. We were like, we really need to do this album because it's good enough. Well, I think we even set it on into the microphones in a passing way. And I know that there were plenty of people in my DM saying, like, please actually do that. Please actually do that.

And not that I think we ever had any intention of not. But they are an interesting band to me because they're, they're not. not, you know, this is not going to be like a huge, huge record maybe. I think something that'll be interesting for us to talk about is what kind of steam it can pick up and it's summer and a lot of these songs are super fun. But I think there's like, people who love Moona really love Moona. There is a, Katie, I think it was in a Billboard interview, said something to that effect. and there was a passing statement in the piece where it wasn't backed up with specific figures, but it was something along the lines of like they have a very high conversion rate of people who

get exposed to the music and then go to a show. Yeah. And, you know, the things that make people, like sort of tapping into that energy and like what that energy is, like what that energy means for a band on their fourth album right now, a band that's opened for Taylor, for Harry Styles, for Phoebe, who's had those kinds of co-signs. And I think did do a little bit of sort of expectation setting or like outreach in the lead up to this album with those billboards that they had around,

I think it was like Bonneron, Coachella. that were kind of targeting people outside the core fan base, all those billboards that said, you may not be gay, but your favorite band should be. And I don't think that they, like, I don't hear in the music artists who are in any sort of primary way

on a path to trying to, like, trying to be bigger for the sake of being bigger. But I do think that because, like, they are so infectious. There's such an infectious quality to this music. into this band.

They want to be bigger. They should. Yeah, I don't, like, I don't, I think that's different from feeling like the artistic choices that people are making are with a kind of commercial crassness as their intent, right? Like, I don't think that those two things have to, um, I think those two things can sort of coexist. Yeah. I mean, I think the thing that drives a lot of the way that this album sounds is, pro, you

as self-described by the band, by Katie anyway. But I do think this album sounds, I mean, when you go back and listen to some of the early, in particular the first two albums, compared to this production, it sounds a little flat. And that's just the passage of time and technology. But this, this to me feels like a pretty big album. And they're big songs on here.

And when you layer them into the rest of the catalog, when you see this band on stage, I mean, I think you really nailed it for me, which is they are, they come from a long lineage in line of artists who were openly queer female groups. I think about the Indigo girls, I think about a few others, where they almost got defined by their queerness before their music was received. And I'm just making the really strong argument that you can't help but fall in love with this band when you see them live.

and that they are actually way bigger than the community that has lifted them up and that sometimes bands like this run into this this boundary, right? Which is we want to cross it and go bigger. Will our community of fans support that? Will our community be happy to bring in another group of fans? By the way, this happened with Youngblood.

This happened with Pearl Jam when they got big. Like it happens with all kinds of bands. that come from different scenes and communities. But this band to me feels like I almost, I don't know. I feel like I want to scream from the rooftops that they need a second look because I just feel like they're making such infectious pop right now. And it matters to me. The thing that's interesting about what you're saying about sort of expanding the community

is that like if all of that is true, the way that they are doing that, like they are making it, they are broadening the tent by making music that is maybe gayer than ever. Yeah. Which is cool. Like that's because it's a testament to,

it's a testament to the specific as the universal, right? Because it is emotion and it is truth and it is lived experience. And like that, even if it doesn't reflect you, it does because it reflects humanity. And like, that I think is kind of part of the mission statement of an album like this. And it's a fun thing to kind of try to. We've long ago established it. I'm a weirdo. But like, you know, East Side Girls is ostensibly a love song for Los Angeles.

It's also, you know, there's a line in the chorus that's like, they want me on all four. force. I'm just telling if you squint, that song fucking crushes. You do not have to... I don't think you really need to squint. That's... Yeah, I just mean if you, if the lyrical detail doesn't resonate with you and you

need to squint to feel like it's connected, which I don't, but I just like, I'm... It's a big ass fucking pop song. Yeah, but I just don't think that you... The thing that I think is cool about it is that I don't think that you do. Because even if you're not like, ah, yeah,

I, too, have existed in this romantic environment, right, of, like, groups of lesbians that all know each other in East Los Angeles. Right. I think we all can relate to, like, we're all parts of different communities, right? Like, we all have existed in spaces where, you know, you sort of know the tropes of it, and it's very precious to you, but it's also easy to kind of lampoon because you see, you see the beauty in it and you also see the, you can kind of make the jokes about like,

they're out there and they're meeting people and the pitfalls of fuck she's non-monogamous. Right? Like, even if that, even if the specific punchline isn't what you're dealing with, there's an analogy that would work. I'm thinking about a couple of artists that we've talked about before on this podcast. I'm thinking about Ani DeFranco. who was fiercely protected in a lot of ways by the queer community. I'm thinking about Chapel Rhone, who, I don't know.

I mean, what's your perception? I mean, if you see Chapel Live, like, she's busted through into the mainstream because she just has songs that are so infectious that they can't not. Like, Hot to Go is a fucking generational anthem. And so it just, now, at the same time, the crowd at a chapel concert does not look like the crowd at a Taylor concert does now. Like, by the second half of the Erez tour, I mean.

Yeah. Where there were lots of straight men in that crowd. Yeah. I also think that it's a bit generational. Because I think the age band of a chapel concert is much narrower than the Eros tour. And I would even say, like, I think the age band at a Muna concert

is probably wider than, Chapel, but it's narrower than the Ere's Tour. Well, this band, you know, putting aside, I think what you're hearing from me is a little angst and agitas and discomfort, feeling like they have been labeled as Phoebe Bridgers' queer indie rock band. And one of the things that's going to be interesting for us to talk about is we've not heard one word from Phoebe Bridgers, I mean, period. but we've definitely not heard from Phoebe Bridgers about this artist and this album,

which is interesting to me. I think just the timing of the releases and Phoebe's sort of very planned and deliberate comeback strategy maybe got in the way of that. Yeah. But I think you're hearing from me just like I have seen plenty of artists who have been defined by the community from which they came before queer, otherwise grunge, you know, whatever, that have gotten to a place where the music, in the best way, expanded beyond, had the opportunity to expand beyond the community.

And the question is, will the brand allow it? And I've seen the live show enough to know that the answer is unequivocally, fuck yes. And I don't even, you know, my guess is Moona doesn't give a shit. They just make music. And that's the way it should be. I think I just now being a fan of the band want to see it expand. Yeah, I think, I mean, to the earlier

part of our conversation, I don't know that I think they're like, we need to be bigger, we need to be bigger, we need to be bigger. I think you think they need to be bigger. Yeah. I think they just need to be heard because it's fucking cool.

Yeah. No, it's... And maybe it's because... No. I'm making the joke here, but I'm using it as a pivot point to talk, because I realized in doing the listening and thinking in prep of this pod, that we are damn close to the four-year anniversary of being funny in a foreign language by the 1975.

True. Which I did not really process that it had been four years. But that's a long time. And so there's a part of me that all the drama, all of the, you know, Maddie Healy stuff aside, there's a part, like, being funny in foreign language is a great album. I love that album.

Part of the band filleted me. You know, about you has an iconic moment with the female bridge section. And like, that album is very, very, and there's a bunch of stuff before it, on and on and on.

But there is a part of me that thinks I'm also so attracted to this band because they share so, many of the indie pop qualities that I dig about 1975 songs. Yeah, well, if anywhere in particular. Well, I mean, it gets so hot, which is the opening track sounds a heck of a lot like the 1975 song that starts being funny in foreign language. I get it on so what. Yeah, so what for sure. Girls girl could be girls from 1975.

Some of those pulsating bass synth that really were lifted from earlier songs in the 80s, baselines. And then those little guitar riffs that Maddie plays over and that the band plays over a lot of their songs. You hear that on, a bunch of these songs. Mary Jane is an example of that

where it's super reminiscent of Stevie Nix's standback combined with some Don Henley Boys of Summer guitar riffs over it. But that's a lot of the roots of what's inside the 1975. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's a piece of it where you want to be fair

in saying that to some extent, I think there are, like, there's a portion of what we're talking about that is basically what it sounds like to filter those sounds of the 80s through a contemporary lens and using contemporary tools. Yeah. But I also, like, the 1975,

I mean, the 1975 is certainly the most influential band of the 2020s. Fair? I hadn't thought about that. I don't think, like, who would the counter argument be? I just, hmm, banned? Band? No, no, no. I know.

BTS, are they a band? No. They're a band, but it's too specific. Let me think about that. I don't know. I mean, I think about most of the world. I think the 1975 is the most influential band of this decade, which is more than half over. It's interesting. I mean, listen, they headline Glastonbury.

Most of the albums, except for being funny and foreign language, came out a lot earlier. They were more of a 2010s band. But, I mean, Robbers goes way back. Yes, but I think that they have been, I think that you feel their influence more in the last five-plus years because the next generation of artists that... has heard them and reflected some of that back, follows a little bit later on. You know, if you wanted to talk about the 2010s,

like, I think we could probably have a version of that conversation too, although I don't think that they're going to end up completely on top of that. But like, I just, I think there's a pretty good argument for that. And so, like, of course you hear them, right? There's also not that many bands out there these days. And so, yeah, I mean, that's an interesting. I got to spend some more time thinking about it. Because, like, you do have, I don't know, it's not the, yeah, I mean, the foo fighters, it's not, it's not, I mean, I'm thinking about older bands.

It's like, that's a very interesting company. Somebody's going to blow us up for that. The killers who have taken over sort of college halftime show songs. But, yeah, I don't know. Oh, gosh. I was at a wedding over the weekend where the couple had brought a band that they met in grad school at UVA and a band that plays at a lot of UVA events, like a cover band. And pretty clearly the band leader had been told that he wasn't allowed to take his shirt off until Mr. Brightside. Oh, no.

Oh, I think I saw this on your story. This came off. It was very funny. I think I saw that on your story. All of a sudden, there was like a very sweaty, shirtless man singing Mr. Brightside on this wedding dance floor. It was very funny. Sorry, that was a detour. It's just you brought it up and it was all that I could think about.

Food for thought. We'll return to this conversation. But it is unsurprising to me to hear a lot of 1975. influence because I think that it is all around us. Yeah. LCD sound system, does that count? That's not really a band. No. Radiohead is not 2020 band. You might have really nailed it.

I'm going to take us back to talking about Moona. I can just see in your face that like this is where you are now. You got me. Thinking about Maddie Healy. How do I pull you back in for this? No, no, no, I'm not. I'm out. No, no, I'm out. Now I'm, I'm just making sure that we crossed our T's and dotted our eyes on potential influential bands of the 2010s. Because I just don't have a bitter example for you. I think the only weakness in the argument is that they have one album that they've put out in the 2010s. In the 2020s. are in the, yeah, in the 2020s, but I think the most, really the most interesting part of that is that there just aren't that many bands in,

that are around in the 2020s right now. Yeah. So the influence gets concentrated a little bit. I mean, I think you can, you can do a lot of, you can say the same thing. I think there's plenty of 1975 influences that you hear with Haim, too.

And there just are not that many. examples of a genuinely contemporary sort of like pop fluent but band band and it is cool that Muna is one of few current examples that fits that description and I do think that that's part of why like it's fun to go see a band right like it's fun to see three genuinely great friends who also make music together invite you into their space. And I think in particular, I mean, you brought up it get so hot. Like this album starts off so clearly like in the club and it's very visceral and very sweaty and super horny. And like that, I imagine that that's the environment of the show. And I feel like that will be a very fun thing for people. And hopefully that

is something that brings a little bit more attention to the album because people get into it through that experience or through seeing other people having that experience. Oh, that's not to say that I don't think that people can catch on to the songs in their own right. I mean, I think that you know, dancing on the wall so far is the biggest. song, I personally gravitate most to East Side Girls. I just think it is so much fun and so infectious and there's such a confidence to it. Yeah. Do you think, like, at the end?

The data says dancing on the wall is going to be bigger. That it, it, now, it was released before East Side Girls. Yes. On a daily basis now, it's streaming. I don't know, 15, 20 percent more than East Side Girls. They are the two biggest. songs from the album at the moment for sure. Yeah. I mean, I think if that's still the case that dancing on the wall is streaming more on a daily basis than East Side Girls, then it probably is dancing on the

wall. I do just like, East Side Girls to me is such a summer anthem. It's just so fun. It's so cool. It's so funny. And I have a good friend who went to one of the shows in New York in May, and she said that when they get to the fuck she's non-monogamous line of the bridge. The people who were there, like the screaming of that line was the loudest it got the entire night. Well, it is like

an L.A. themed Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire bridge. Nashville, Gin, Austin, Paris. Fuck, she's non-monogamous. Harry Truman and Doris, Ray, China, you're a witcher, Joe,

Churchill, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, And that is the best line in what is an exceptional bridge for sure. But I think you have to, like the first time that I heard this song, I wasn't into it. I mean, I was into it, but it just felt camp isn't the right word, not the band camp, but like campy. It felt almost a little formulaic. But the more that I listened to it, the more I got into the structure of the song, and the, like in some ways it felt like they were playing a caricature of an 80s band or something. But man, Katie's...

Like in the, are you talking about, I don't even know how to describe it, but the backing vocals where it's like, do, do, do, yeah, precisely. The do-ju-jus. That's right, Nora, you're playing the ju-ju-horn. And the doo-doo horn is... Yeah. But yeah, there's something a little funny about it. But like Katie's vocal, Katie's vocal when she goes to the chorus and just the way that she lifts up on East Side Girl, like she just nails it. And like it's just an infectious melody that totally earwormed me and turned me into a fucking moon a zombie, honestly, because this was the one where I was like, holy shit.

I started with So What. I think So What is my favorite, favorite song on the album. Because there's just something really wonderfully vulnerable about it in the same way that I think Buzz Killer is wonderfully vulnerable. And like I really love the melody on Buzz Killer. Those two actually started as my favorite songs. But I listened the album a couple times over and I just found myself like inadvertently coming back to Eastside Girls. And again, here I am.

fucking guy in the gym listening to Moona. I need to look you in the eyes and tell you that is not anywhere near as strange as you think it is. Well, it's fucking great. And, yeah, E-side girl just won

me over. It's definitely the song that I've listened to the most. Isn't it this great counter-argument to what we talked about last week with Olivia Rodrigo's expectations? Like, they definitely think they might find their partner in a bar in Silver Lake. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, I've got hope. Yeah, I've got drive. I will not lose my face. Don't think my future husband's at this bar in Silver Lake. It's great. And it's this wonderful ode to and they just, I don't know, they just nailed the melody and it pulls the entirety of the song together. I can

overlook the 80s-ish clowny structure. I can overlook the, I have definitely heard that before in We Didn't Starts. the fire bridge. I can't like the whole thing. It just, I mean, I think they know that the, that they wear that reference on their sleeve, right?

It's the point. It's the point. It is a bit. And a lot of the, that's it is that a lot of the song feels like a bit. I can even get through that they want me on all fours. In the chorus. And because it's just like,

the song fucking kicks ass. It just does. Yeah, it's, I'm dancing on the wall into East Side Girls. Tracks two and three. That is a one, two, you know, that is seven minutes or whatever of some of the most infectious melodies in a pop album that certainly this year. Just in terms of, like, I, sometimes you just, you hear a song, you hear a couple songs, and you know that you will see them on your wrapped,

you know that you will keep putting them on playlist. Like, I, there's so, there's such a lightness and just a fun and a lift. And I think both of those, I mean, I agree with you that, like, to me, it is that, that moment when she goes up on the chorus of East Side Girls, it just sounds great. You just want to listen to it. And I find it, I mean, I find it like, hand. and a little sticky, but...

She also sings it in the outro in a different way that makes it sound fresh again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some, like, yearning in the way that she sings it, and it just works. On dancing on the wall, it took me a little while on that song. Like, the first time I heard it, I thought, okay, it's all right.

Do you know in the chorus there's that lyric that's like, it's all right, I'm calling you up again? Mm-hmm. Before I consulted the lyrics for like the first, I don't know, two weeks, I thought it was, it's all right, I'm calling you a bigot. That's what it sounded like to me. I was like, wow, Moona really getting political on song too. Yeah. And it really sounds like that to me.

And I sort of wish it was, it's all right, I'm calling you a bigot. But I understand why it's not. Yeah, it wasn't part of my journey with the music, but we all have our Starbucks lovers. The go on give me nothing? Like an absolute duo reference. I'm sorry, you have to live with it. Speaking of which, she is just, I mean, are they ever going to not honeymoon? Is that what it is, permanent honeymoon?

I love her so much. I went to, went not to wear her wedding actually. was, but to where her Friday events were over the weekend. Stalkerish way or in a, you were included in the events way? I don't think it was stalkerish. I think it was, no, I didn't go to the actual event, but like to the location of them. Oh, just in a coincidental. Oh, my God, I'm there.

I made a pilgrimage. Oh, you did. Okay. Yes, I went to look up at the Palazzo balcony in a square in Palermo where she stood over and waved and looked like she was having the time of her. life. Did it still smell like cigarettes and European perfume? So, no, although funny enough, I was at my husband's cousin's wedding over the weekend, and they got married in Scapello, Sicily.

Look at you jaunting to Italy on a whim. I know. It was very, it was quick. What the fuck? Well, because my honeymoon was nine years long, Bobby and I are not exactly swimming in vacation days. We wanted to make it. We wanted to be there, but we couldn't go for very long. But it was still really fun. Super long honeymoons.

Oh my God. Her whole life is a honeymoon. But it was like we were in Palermo where a duelaipa got married. And then my cousin-in-law's wedding was in the same town that Charlie XX got married in. Like literally, they're technically two different venues, but it was like 200 feet away from where Charlie got married. You're just doing a tour of the pop star wedding. No, I know. I felt so connected to these women.

Hit Girls, too, Nora's new book about... It's like where people got married. Belatedly visiting places where pop stars get married. I want to know where people stayed for Charlie's wedding, though. Because like really, really beautiful town, really cool. There's no, like, there's no fancy hotel in Scapello. There's no, like, glamour. Like, it's cool.

It's like Little Beach. hotels and and it's super chic and casual. But like, there are a lot of people where I'm like, where did you stay? Like, where did you spend that night? Did you just stay up all night? And then you went back to Palermo? Maybe. I don't know. I have, I'm interested. Save these questions for the Taylor Swift MSG wedding, please. Really good tuna. Anyway. Dancing on the wall. The chorus is awesome. Go and give me nothing is a great line. And this is, I mean, it's the second song on the album. It really feels like it gets so hot, though, for me was just like this palette cleanser, like the intro.

And dancing on the wall is the first, like, here we go. And it's like, okay, I got it. We are all 80s synth bass. We're going to have a few little guitar licks interspersed. And it feels like the same palette for a lot of this album until you get to So What. And to Me, So What with those synth loops and this sort of repetition and a little bit more of an electronic vibe than just an 80s synth pop vibe feels like a little bit of a turning point in the album for me. Yeah, well, and lyrically, I feel like it ends up being a bit of a turning point in the album too. The first half, basically, from it gets so hot to on call. definitely puts, you know, it's, to me, as a Moona fan, it's familiar.

But if you associate them to some degree with writing these kind of like, like a little bit of yearning and kind of heart and gut piercing lyrics, the first half of this, And this is why I do like it gets so hot quite a bit as an album opener. Like, it is a little bit of a departure where you are on the dance floor. Like, it's fun. And not that there aren't trials and tribulations with that that they're writing about, but it is very, they're working it all out in this kind of joyous state. And then I think this second half, Want to Be Her.

Gets a little bit more pensive and a little bit more introspective. For sure. Political. Yeah. Want to Be Her uses the word bitch a lot. Tight bitch. She's a right bitch. Get in sight.

Bitch. Start of bitch. So they're working that out. Sure. But that's in the early part. Then you get so what. And that to me feels like this song feels like

this is fine meme to me like where it's that like you're spinning out in the middle of the night and you've convinced everyone but yourself that something is true but your psyche won't let you actually internalize it and so it just sort of I love the way the song devolves into this kaleidoscope of color and rhythm and then Nora we get into the first of two interludes on this album

so I'm dying to know how you feel as an A1 interlude hater how do you feel about parties over and unless as interludes on this Moona album I really mind them like they do kind of just wash over me I mean I do think that like it doesn't do anything for me yeah

and so I continue to just wonder why these things exist I mean it's not a particularly long album but yeah The dorkiest thing to do at Amun a show would be to stand in the crowd and scream for unless or parties over. It just doesn't. 13 seconds of transition. Do anything to answer my question about the utility of any of this stuff.

Well, it's just a transition. But how do you feel about so what? Are you into the song? Yeah. Really? That was a measured response. No, I'm into it. I think.

I want you to love that. I think the vocal delivery is really special. Like that's the thing that when she does the, there's a lot of people here tonight with their best shoes on drinking for free. Like there's something about, there's a softening of, like, that last couple of words for free. Lots of people love me now.

Yeah. Yeah. Or it's almost like for the first three quarters of the line, she's really delivering it and then it's almost like she trails off a little bit it's all right and it all worked out lots of people love me now lots of people

yeah and again I think the right and I think not only is that a cool thing in the song it's at a cool moment for that in the album because you've had like the this is kind of what I was just saying I hope I'm not repeating myself but like the first half feels so outward to me.

It feels so much about, okay, sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down, sometimes, like, there's a lot of stuff going on. But let's celebrate the community that we're a part of and how much fun we can have messiness and all within that. And then like you're getting into this stretch where it is more introspective. And those lines to me almost mirror that where

she's singing outwardly about an experience and then it's almost like you just kind of go back into her head by the end of it and it grounds that internal monologue. There's a lot of people here tonight and most of them would want to go home with me. Lots of people love me now. So if you don't, so what? And it's like, well,

I don't believe you. Yeah, yeah. And that's what's great. That's the point. She's publishing an intermonol. Hand to heart, it's not my favorite melody on the album. But I think it's, I think, I think the emotion of it feels very. I love the texture.

I love the melody. This one was close for me. Are we just going to beat around big stick? Are we going to talk about it? Well, what do you think about it? it. What I think about is I really at the early part of the song wanted it to be like a influencer shaming thing.

Sure. But it sort of became raging at big tech and the billionaire control of media and more of that too. I saw a little bit of criticism about this song for its sort of directness. Like, it's not a particularly artfully worded song in that way. That is how I felt that way a little bit. It's not, I don't dislike it. I give them a lot of credit for, I believe they put this out initially and did a bit of a fundraiser with it.

I don't think there is any question to me that, like, Moona puts their money where their mouth is and comes by their activism incredibly. honestly. I generally speaking, it's a little heavy-handed for me. But I also think

that we've lived like no one has really written a super like the protest song of this era doesn't exist. No.

And like hasn't. And not to link it back to 1975, but like love it if we made it, you know, I moved on like a bit.

Like all of that stuff felt a little bit rar and more of a reaction. I don't feel like we've got a... Yeah, although I don't think that people broadly recognize that song as like a... Yeah, but I mean, that's sort of what it is. But the... I'm with you that it doesn't feel like for all of the political division and unrest and on all sides of the spectrum, I don't feel like we've gotten sort of a different.

piece of art that defines that in our society. So if Moona is throwing out a song to get the skids greased, by all means, you're welcome. I know this is not one that I come back to, but it's out there and it serves a purpose. And I would love to see more artists who at least have internalized a set of feelings about the current state of the union to express it just because I love to see great artists be moved in that way. The funny thing is, like, I get a lot more from Buzz Killer. As a quasi political statement in that, you know, okay, it can certainly be applied to interpersonal relationships. But also, here is this album where they've talked about particularly the early tracks.

being an expression of queer joy and sexuality that is radical in a way in a moment when culture has become, you know, is reverting a little bit and reverting in more and more puritanical ways and less and less inclusive ways. And the expression of that is a political act in its own right. It is also a little bit, you know, there's a tension of, of let's just try to be joyful to maintain that in this ugly world and to feel something and to feel self-expression and to prove that we're here, but then also to know that people do feel hopeless sometimes

and that it can be incomplete, right? Because it doesn't entirely like all of that defy, doesn't totally engage with all of the vulnerabilities of so many people, but also people who are outside the spaces ultimately that they are mostly writing about. And so there's something about some of BuzzKiller to me, particularly as the last song on this album, that grounds that idea, which they've also talked about as being part of their thinking behind all of this.

And I think that really comes through with that track. And like, to me, there's just a subtlety to that that I think gets me a little bit more into it. It's almost like I've remade that almost as the protest song from this album and it works better for me that way. Great. I mean, again, I don't think I'm coming back to Big Stick. I come back to Buzz Killer all the time. I fell so deeply in love with the vulnerability on that song. And after, to your point, all of this, it's not bravying.

but the sort of confidence and carefree and there's some coyness to the first half of the record. But then Katie says, I'm past my prime and everyone knows it. Like, it's just, what a thing to say. And it's in the context of the band's doing fine. I mean, we're doing all right, but I'm past my prime and everyone. knows it. Like, wow. And I think the way that she stacks the melody, and again, it's similar to what happens on So What? It's similar to what happens on East Side girls in terms of when Katie sort of does these step-up notes with her melodies leading into the chorus. It's just that you think I'm so easy

to love. It just gets me every time, baby, please, you just buzzed. I'm a buzz killer. It's like, whoa. Just that feeling that you always have of, I'm not what you think. You're just, you. You know, think. And it mirrors so what for me in that she's convinced everybody, everybody loves her except the one person that she really wants to love her. And in this song, it's almost the inverse of that, which is this person who loves her, she's unable to accept it. And that's a very human, vulnerable feeling that's rooted in a lot of like personal insecurity, I think, but that's super relatable. And there's just, listen, the way that the song devolves at the end,

which also happens on So What, by the way, except that in So What, it sort of gets more textured and more frenetic. An intense beat-like, whereas on Buzz Killer, at the end, it almost becomes like the seizures that you get in flashing lights.

Like, it's the equivalent of that in music sonically. as it just sort of falls apart. But, yeah, this one I just, I absolutely adore Buzz Killer. Yeah, I think it's probably. And nobody's listening to it, by the way. I know. I know. I mean, like, look, it's not.

It's just on a relative basis. It's not. It's not a go good. It's not on the workout playlist. It's not like a pump-up song. Yeah. But I think it's probably, I think it's probably the second best song. I think Eastside Girls is the best song.

Yeah. I think Buzz Killer probably comes next for me and then dancing on the wall. Okay. You know, I might give a slightly different answer if I say, which ones do I sort of like the best? But I don't know. There's just, there's something really impressive about that. What would, I mean, what, what would you cut? Cut big stick, because I, yeah.

I don't need why do I get a good feeling. It's an interesting textured, again, a, uh, has that frenetic loop energy a little bit of so what. But I don't need it. I like Mary Jane, even though it really does sound like Stevie's stand back. And so much so that I'm surprised they didn't give her writing credit. I will say that I find that, and I think this sequencing I wish was a little different,

just because that stretch, of Big Stick, Mary Jane, and Girls Girl, the lyrical writing on all three of those songs is a bit, like, it doesn't really hide the ball. Those are three songs where the message is very, like, explicitly rendered. Yeah.

And I, I feel very aware that I've been taken to this place where like it's really being spelled out for me what's going on and what she's writing about and what she's saying. And there's something about that that takes me out of it a little bit. It's not that I don't like, I like the song. None of these songs bother me. I would cut the inner lutes. There is a directness to the, I knew you'd cut the inner ludes.

But I think that's a little bit. We're not going to let you off the hook on that. The real question is, would you cut big stick or not? Does it? No, I kind of respect. Yeah, I wouldn't either. I also respect them going for it. Yeah.

That's where I am too. Yeah. I wonder what it'll be like in concert. I mean, I know it's been in concert, but particularly for the crowds that will be zealous, but maybe not quite so zealous as the few shows that they've done in a few cities in the early going. Like, I just wonder how that's going to go. It's interesting.

The crowd will find their lines in that song to scream. Yeah, totally. They'll work it out. But when you layer some of these in, again, with Home By Now, which is a A1 banger, I know a place, A1 banger. They've got Silk Chafon, which, like I said, is not my favorite, but everybody else. I'm a Silk Chaffon girl, but. I'll give you, I'll give you an A2 banger. I mean, put that in with four songs on this record.

it's like what else they need. I mean, they've got more stuff too on top of that. Winter Break is maybe one of their biggest songs. And number one fan on and on. Like they have a real catalog now to go crush a live show. And this band can crush a live show. Yeah. I've told you that I went to see them in their last tour.

And they brought out Lord. But it was kind of like, I was standing in the back with my friends because we didn't really We didn't feel that it was No, we did know what was going on But we didn't feel that it was appropriate for us To be like really moshing with the lesbians And that that was their space I don't want everybody to think that you have to mosh with the lesbians

To go to this show You don't, you don't, you don't You don't, you don't, you don't But also like get over it and have some fun But we didn't figure out that it was Lord until we left And then some girl ran up to me and was like Excuse me Was that Lord?

I was like, whoa, was that Lord? I couldn't figure out who that was. But she came out and she sang Silk Chopin with them. She did the Phoebe parts. Awesome. Yeah, it was cool. Anything else? No.

I think I've sufficiently advocated for an album that I really, really enjoy. Yeah. This one rules. I love Moona. This is a band that does not have a song that has streamed more than 100,000 times on Spotify. So this is like, this band is smaller than Hym. This is a, from a streaming perspective.

So hurtful. I know. I'm just telling you. I'm not mad at you. I'm just saying. But they're playing red rocks and they're going to lead nights at all things go. And they're playing Santa Barbara Bowl and they're playing some larger spaces. So I think that they delivered the album that they need to.

and now it's a fascinating cultural study to see where it goes from here. And to your point, maybe they don't want it. Maybe they're happy where they are. But this feels like an album with some ambition. And I fucking dig that. Yeah, I really hope it pays off. I don't think that they don't want it. I just don't think that they are compromising anything about their art to get it.

I think they're making the album that matters to them and that they want to make. And I think that it happens that that's created something that, God, if someone's not into this album, I really don't like, you know, no shade, love what you love. I'm just like, I don't, I don't understand. I think it's really excellent. I will be listening to it all summer. Let's go. I really think that I would give this album an A. Wow.

Wow. I gave it a B plus. What? Yeah. I think it's terrific. That's terrific for me. I just, I don't think there is like an all-timer epic breakout hit that,

that to me is the like thing that I hold on to. I think there are three songs on here that I fucking love. Maybe I give it an A minus. Maybe I'm being a little insane. I just like, I think Eastside Girls is. It is for me. To me,

to me it's that song. It's number one in here. That's what matters. It's going on the lake playlist. It's going on 100% it goes on the lake playlist. Well, that's good. All right, this has been every single album. I'm Nora Princeati. As always, he's Nathan Hubbard. Thank you to Kaii McMullen for producing this episode. And to you for listening, we'll talk to you next week.