‘Homemade Vision’ by Angela Perley And The Howlin’ Moons (Album)

Angela Perley And The Howlin’ Moons: deliberating about love and loss over 10 genre-spanning tracks

By utilising genres like blues, rock n roll and pop, this Ohio band have encapsulated the complicated nature of love

The second album from Columbus, Ohio’s Angela Perley And The Howlin’ Moons finds the band deliberating about love and loss over 10 genre-spanning tracks. It seems fitting that each song has a unique feel to it. Separately they tell a short story of their own, but when brought together like this, they paint a much larger picture relating to the complicated nature of relationships.

For every fragment of pain there is an optimistic counterpoint, which gives the record a complete feel. On Your Love, Perley sounds like a grizzled road warrior in the mould of Lucinda Williams, straddling the boundary between Americana, blues and rock. But there is also a sweet centre to Perley’s ragged edges – I Don’t Wanna Be Your Fool is a sugar-coated droplet of 60s pop and Dandelion Kisses a shimmering ballad. Green Eyes, with its sleazy guitars, provides the album’s most raucous moment.

It’s impressive that it all holds together as well as it does. By the time the understated melancholy of Easy brings Homemade Vision to a close, you feel like you’ve been shown a glimpse of the band’s very essence, and it’s hard not to agree with Perley as she sings, “it might sound silly but I’ve fallen for your baby.”

Verdict: Love and loss laid bare

Duncan Haskell

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