We Landed On The Moon – These Little Wars

19 September 2008, Allan @ 6:30 pm We Landed On The Moon These Little Wars

We Landed On The Moon! is a 5-piece band originally out of The Red Stick (Baton Rouge), Louisiana. If this band receives any notoriety it’s likely going to be based on Melissa Eccles’ vocals which sounds like a young Jenny Lewis fronting Rilo Kiley. It’s really hard to get away from that comparison, they also sound alike. I made that comparison myself but they referred as sounding like Rilo Kiley, Ra Ra Riot and Blondie. I’m not sure what I would compare the band to but it wouldn’t be Ra Ra Riot, they do have great pop sensibilities.

We Landed On The Moon’s follow-up record comes out on December 16th and while that is a mile away, I don’t think I could delay this review until then (it’s exam time anyway), besides it’s so much easier to write something where your opinions are rather fresh.

The album starts with Solitaire with some simplistic intro synths and Eccles sings “Looking at pictures from airplanes, I wish the seats would fall right through the floor”. It has a pop subtleness to it that gives off that Jenny Lewis innocence/sexiness. It wanes a little on “Solitaire” until she is singing her lungs off. I still am confused why the song is called Solitaire though. I also scratch my head at the title “Vietcong” on the 3rd track. I have no idea what the song does with the Vietnamese.

Anyway, We Landed On The Moon is significantly anchored by Melissa Eccles, she basically controls the dull or exciting moments on These Little Wars, she’s basically the rocket that fuels each song. While I don’t want to take much away from the band itself, there’s a lot left to be desired. The band itself does make adjustments and they do try to give off a different sound by mixing it up with keyboard synths and various different guitar riffs. At times though, without Eccles singing it’s really drags down a song or even then when Eccles isn’t being at her strongest the music behind her doesn’t do enough to make up for it.

They are still all solid pop songs with tracks not being full misses and they are still quite raw as ever. They still tend to very structured even if they show a plight of creativity at the beginning of each song, it kicks back into the same structure most songs on the album have. It doesn’t hurt the music at all but it We Landed On The Moon! may never be able to shake off the Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis comparison otherwise.

I may be nitpicking too much but all in all, the record is an excellent effort from a band to have yet cracked the big time and they are definitely capable. I think We Landed on The Moon probably need to take a step up in risks, both lyrically and musically to really move to the top… but I still commend them for a solid release.

AWmusic