Muna (2022)

One Liner: HAIM-ish indie pop and 80's redux schlock
Wikipedia Genre: indie pop, synth-pop, electropop, dark pop, power pop
Home: L.A

Poster Position: 9
Weekend One Only.  Sunday.

Thoughts: They were last here in 2017, and my post about them was less than complimentary.  Apparently then, as now, I was tired of everyone emulating music from the 80's.  Also, their Wikipedia said they were "dark pop" and that made me depressed.  But, I'll say that their new disc is a little more HAIM, and I like it better.

Their Wikipedia pagetalks a good bit about how all three members identify as queer and they refuse to use gender-based pronouns in their tunes.  As far as the music goes, the old two albums are more of the same 80's homage that apparently is going to be all the rage for this year's ACL fest lineup.  This is kind of one part old school Madonna, one part HAIM, one part Kate Bush on Auto-Tune, and one part 80's cover band repeatedly practicing Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car" without a sax.

Three albums - 2017's About U, 2019's Saves the World, and 2022's MUNA.  Here is what I said about the 2017 album: 

"Music like this is why it is really hard to just listen through all of the music on this poster, as I would probably like this more if I hadn't just been subjected to several 80's homage bands in a row, to where I'm sick of hearing these same beat styles and synths and soft rock guitar stylings.  I need to go cleanse with a proper dose of metal or something for a few hours.  Because this music is fine.  It's snappy, pretty, and kind of a longing sound that should be good.  Their most popular track by a mile is the Tiesto remix of a track called "Winterbreak," with 32.6 million streams, but then their second most popular is also that song, in its original form, with 12.5 million streams.  [FYI, that song is no longer in their top ten songs.  It now has 21.4 million streams, but is not their big hit anymore.]  We'll check that one first.

Damn.  I want to bathe in those lyrics like a warm bath.  So full of sorrow and loss and longing.  That part of the song is money.  The tune itself?  I can do without.  The third-most listened to track on this album is "Loudspeaker," with 9.5 million streams.

More emotionally raw (although exuberantly sung this time) lyrics that work really well.  I want to like this one more than I do, but I honestly think I'd rather just read the lyrics and catch feels rather than listen to the actual songs.  Not sure why everyone wants to go back to the 80's sound, but I think I'm OK here in the now."

BUT, the stuff for the new album is significantly better.  The top track is the one with Phoebe Bridgers on it, called "Silk Chiffon," with 23.7 million streams.

The guitar work elevates it above the other songs, and it really sounds like the HAIM girls could be the ones up on stage jamming it out.  Also Phoebe Bridgers is a damn stud.  I'll also note that this song very clearly uses pronouns in singing about how good she feels when on her.  So I guess they ditched their old anti-pronoun stance.  I like that one much better than the old stuff.

I'm kinda in to the new sound?  I just might buy in.