Moonswept

iTunes Review

It’s been more than 10 years between albums featuring all three Roche sisters, and that’s about 9-1/2 years too long. The evocatively titled Moonswept ditches the synth-heavy sound of some of their 80s work in favor of multiple acoustic guitars that blend as beautifully as the sisters’ voices. For a change, most of the instruments are played by the Roches themselves, who also penned all but two of the songs (the novelty-ish “No Shoes” and “Jesus Shaves,” written by the also evocatively titled Paranoid Larry). This time around, the sisters’ goofy, anarchic wit comes paired with a bittersweet sense of redemption. A passing reference to 9/11 on the gorgeously Zen love song “Only You Know How” (“Did you ever take a walk to the edge of town / Back before the airplanes came and took the buildings down”) becomes the moving “September 11 at the Shambhala Center,” showcasing Terre in lovely voice. In addition to boasting some very witty lyrics about late-life love (“I’d like you to think of me as somebody you’d put your teeth in for”), the loungey, samba-flavored “Piggy Mask” somehow also manages to become a metaphor for George Bush’s America. Unlikely, but like the rest of this album, true. Crackling with energy and drive, Moonswept ranks with the very best of the Roches’s work.