Like You Were Never There

Album Review

Austin's Moonlight Towers are a four-piece rock band (two electric guitars, bass, drums) with a sound that has been a constant in popular music for 40 years. The guitars dominate the arrangements, alternately jangly and twangy, and over them James Stevens sings romantic lyrics in a gruff tenor. Small bands have been playing this music since a bunch of American competitors began to emerge to challenge the Beatles in 1964, and they have gone on playing it, without as much commercial success, in the decades since, whether they were called the Dwight Twilley Band, Big Star, the Replacements, or the Black Crowes, and whether they were branded mainstream rock & roll, alternative, or indie rock by critics and publicists. Moonlight Towers don't really bring anything new to the formula, but they execute it as well as anybody, and this style of melodic guitar rock has been consistently played for 40 years because it's been consistently appealing, so there's always room for another band.