Dylan Moon: Only The Blues

Only the Blues is an introduction deferred, and it is the debut album by Dylan Moon. Across it's 35 minutes, we are rarely made to understand what, exactly, the source of Moon's blues is, how that feeling has mutated, or whether there is a life beyond the small rooms and cramped spaces where this music was made. If not opaque, this first meeting with Moon is at least hazily translucent. This makes Only the Blues something of an esoteric response to an age of radical transparency. Broadly speaking, Moon works in the field of folk music. But from this pasture, he glances pathways to digression; seeking scenic routes and counterintuitive cartography, trusting that even the most aimless trip becomes lucid if the foggy details are documented well enough. On this trip, images spill from Moon, and most of them seem foreboding. We are given the sense - both from his lyrics and from the viscous mood he creates, using electronic manipulation to send his songs down compositional egresses, from which they emerge with a mysterious residue - that things have not been going well. Even the most saccharine memories, dancing before a freshly lit fire or hanging out with childhood cartoons come to life, feel caked with a hidden history. Moon studied electronic production and sound design at music school, and then moved to Los Angeles in hopes of working in the film industry. While simultaneously graduating from pop to psych to prog to beat-making, he returned to traditional songwriting on the west coast, working out his ideas over a pair of self-released EPs. He also stumbled upon an ancient drum machine with scratched contact points and seventy years spent under restless thumbs, finding a kind of sonic entropy in it's past-futurist rhythm signals that serve as Only the Blues' spiritual center. The album was recorded in Moon's bedrooms in L.A. and Boston, small spaces made more claustrophobic by the soundproofing he hammered into the doors and the bedding he leaned against the walls. A single soul, spinning away (and out) in a cramped room: It's a state of mind - and being - that Moon used his formal training to refine across Only the Blues. This is an album ornate with so many musical ideas to express that it teeters between ecstasy and anxiety. That anxious quality is also what makes Only the Blues endlessly captivating. Moon moves quickly, courting the madcap at the center of his songs and just as quickly retreating to the fray. Processed guitars appear for a measure and disappear. His voice, a brittle croon reaching reedy highs and bottoming out into throaty baritone, wears tape hiss like a scarf while gently interlocking instrumental figures go nude below. The drum machine melts into a puddle of reverb. Only the Blues uses obfuscation as a mode of confession, so long as we mean "confession" in the conventional sense. Moon is not hiding, but he is deliberately deciding: choosing how to be vulnerable, how to reveal, when to let go, when to move on. It's not the way we usually meet one another. Maybe it should be. Dylan Moon's Only the Blues appears on vinyl and digital formats on August 30, 2019. A portion of the proceeds from the album sales will benefit the Amazon Conservation Association, dedicated to environmental protection in the western Amazon.

1. Hope Dog
2. Death Warmed
3. Rosy
4. Chimneys
5. A Witch
6. Analog
7. Blue Jean
8. Collapse
9. Song For Jerry
10. Interlude
11. Lines
12. Faraway Places
13. Morning Limbo
14. Mind Troubles

Shipping is available to the 48 contiguous United States. We are unable to ship to PO Boxes, International locations, or APO/FPO addresses. 

Please ensure your address is entered correctly. We are unable to redirect to an alternate shipping address once an order is placed.If your order contains multiple items, it may ship from different warehouse locations.

Tracking information will be sent as items are shipped.

Allow up to 5 business days for your order to process when calculating delivery dates. 

Note: Additional delays may occur due to severe weather or other carrier delays. 

Standard Shipping: allow 7-10 business days for delivery. Albums will be shipped via USPS Media Mail; all other products via UPS Ground or FedEx Ground.

Expedited Shipping: allow 2-5 business days for delivery. Albums will be shipped via USPS Priority Mail; all other products via UPS 2-Day Air or FedEx 2-Day Air.

Overnight Shipping: allow 1-2 business days for delivery. All products will be shipped via UPS Next Day Air or FedEx Next Day Air. 

We offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all products purchased from Victrola.com. All items must be returned as new in their original packaging, including all accessories and cables. Albums must be unopened to receive a refund. Missing items will be charged based on suggested retail prices.

All returns must be accompanied by a valid return authorization number (RMA) issued by Victrola. If an RMA is not obtained prior to shipping, the returned product will be refused and returned to sender.

If the item is no longer wanted, the shipping cost is not refundable and returns must be shipped prepaid by the customer. There is a 15% restocking fee that will be calculated based on the price of the product once the item is refunded.

If the item is defective, a pre-paid shipping label to return the product will be provided, and no restocking fee applies.

To set up a return for refund please visit Customer Care. Be sure to include your order # and reason for your return when submitting your request.

View more information about returns and warranty here.