Moody Motorcycle
| Moody Motorcycle | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album by | |
| Released | August 19, 2008 |
| Genre | |
| Label | |
| Producer | Jim Guthrie |
Moody Motorcycle is the only studio album by Canadian indie rock duo Human Highway. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Secret City Records in Canada and Suicide Squeeze Records in the United States.
Critical reception
[edit]| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 71/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Now |   [3] |
| Prefix | 8.5/10[4] |
| Pitchfork | 5.7/10[5] |
| PopMatters | 7/10[6] |
| Slant | [7] |
| Spin | [8] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |    [9] |
Moody Motorcycle was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on nine reviews.[1]
Andrew Winistorfer of Prefix magazine praised the album, calling it "a deft reappropriation and re-imagining of the harmonic pop of the Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash".[4] AllMusic's Bruce Eder wrote: "what is plainer throughout is that someone has finally delivered a follow-up to the Beach Boys' Friends album, dwelling on moments and sensibilities that slip past most of us in the normal course of a day".[2] Matthew Fiander of PopMatters declared: "it is nice to hear a pop record like Moody Motorcycle, not just to wind down the summer, but to combat some other indie rock trends".[6] Josh Constine of Tiny Mix Tapes stated: "while enduring a few accidents, the group's fresh folk approach shows promise".[9]
In mixed reviews, Tim Perlich of Now wrote: "it's just the sort of gently strummed, sweetly harmonized and vaguely familiar-sounding pop music replete with quirky lyrical turns that is designed to make indie-rock-obsessed music hacks swoon. And they will".[3] Wilson McBee of Slant stated: "Moody Motorcycle is easily Thorburn's least ambitious effort, evidenced by the inclusion of song sketches like 'Ode to Abner' and tracks that seem like outtakes from his Islands work (for example, the title cut and 'Pretty Hair'), and yet in its many moments of off-the-cuff beauty the album proves, perhaps even more than the meticulously executed "Arm's Way", the extraordinary talents of this oft-misunderstood Canadian".[7] Jessica Suarez of Spin noted: "the title track gusts in more forcefully, but on the duo's best songs, they harmonize like Simon & Garfunkel shutting their eyes against approaching shades of winter".[8] Tyler Grisham of Pitchfork concluded: "Human Highway work best in this inviting, flickering-campfire headspace, and for an amiable if ephemeral 40 minutes, Moody Motorcycle offers a pleasant soundtrack to the dwindling days of the summer".[5]
Track listing
[edit]| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Sound" | 2:44 | ||
| 2. | "All Day" |
| Guthrie | 3:32 |
| 3. | "Get Lost" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 3:52 |
| 4. | "What World" |
| Guthrie | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Sleep Talking" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 3:34 |
| 6. | "Moody Motorcycle" |
| Guthrie | 3:11 |
| 7. | "My Beach" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 2:55 |
| 8. | "Ode to Abner" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 1:59 |
| 9. | "Pretty Hair" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 3:46 |
| 10. | "Vision Failing" | Thorburn | Thorburn | 3:16 |
| 11. | "Duties of a Lighthouse Keeper" |
| Guthrie | 3:51 |
| 12. | "I Wish I Knew" | Dick Dallas | Billy Taylor | 3:04 |
Personnel
[edit]- Nicholas "Nick Diamonds" Thorburn – lyrics (tracks: 1–11), performer
- James Edward "Jim" Guthrie – lyrics (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6, 11), performer, producer, recording, mixing
- Patrice Agbokou – bass (track 7)
- Art Mullin – mixing
- Jeff "Fedge" Elliott – mastering
- Sasha Barr – art direction
- Jaime Hogge – photography, layout
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Critic Reviews for Moody Motorcycle - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Eder, Bruce. "Moody Motorcycle - Human Highway | Album | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Perlich, Tim (August 13, 2008). "HUMAN HIGHWAY - NOW Magazine". NOW Toronto. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Zeiss, John; Winistorfer, Andrew (August 18, 2008). "Album Review: Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle". Prefixmag. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Grisham, Tyler (August 29, 2008). "Human Highway: Moody Motorcycle". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Fiander, Matthew (September 9, 2008). "Human Highway: Moody Motorcycle » PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b McBee, Wilson (August 27, 2008). "Review: Human Highway, Moody Motorcycle". Slant Magazine. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Suarez, Jessica (August 18, 2008). "Human Highway, 'Moody Motorcycle' (Suicide Squeeze)". SPIN. Vol. 24, no. 9. SPIN Media LLC (published September 2008). p. 116. ISSN 0886-3032.
- ^ a b Constine, Josh (August 26, 2008). "Music Review: Human Highway (Nick Thorburn and Jim Guthrie) - Moody Motorcycle". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
External links
[edit]- Moody Motorcycle at Discogs (list of releases)
