LIVE IN MEXICO

With better sound quality, more consistent songs, and a more precise performance, this is actually the better Moon Safari live album to listen to all the way through. I am not sure if they recorded additional vocals in the studio, or modified the live vocals in some way, but they are perfectly in tune, cleanly recorded, and lush on this album, whereas on "Gettysburg Address" they are rougher around the edges. The band seems better practiced too. But most importantly, all the songs on this album are listenable. While there are no tracks here quite as musical as the two best on 'Gettysburg' ("Moonwalk" and "Other Half of the Sky"), thankfully on this one they left out (most of) the cheese and this album better showcases Moon Safari's song-writing skills. On this album the weakest tracks are actually the two that also appear on the 'Gettysburg Address' live album: "A Kid Called Panic" and "Heartland". Although it seems these are two of the band's own favourites, they are the ones here with more hints of cheese and in fact they are musically shown the door by the rest of the material. "Too Young to Say Goodbye", the opening track, is very well done, with some very nice harmony vocals that thankfully just avoids the cheese, even if it is very light. Moon Safari's vocals at times remind one of the Beach Boys, and their lyrics are often about relationships too, which presents an interesting contrast with the complex, extended and sometimes darker musical tonalities. "Barfly" is an example of this, with tri-tone progressions with dark overtones contrasting with the lighter sing-along lyrics. "Mega Moon" has some great harmony vocals, those tendency to veer into cheese territory is saved by the quality of the harmonies and the underlying musicality. The second disc is even better, albeit shorter. "Crossed the Rubicon" competes for the best track on this album with the long epic that closes it "Lover's End". Both are very musical, with great extended sections. Leaving out 'Kid Called Panic' and 'Heartland' still leaves an album of almost 70 minutes of decent music. The only annoying thing is the banter that the band provides between tracks - I guess they can't help but be a bit cheesy there (same goes for the banter on 'Gettysburg Address'). But on the whole, this is the higher-quality live release. I give this 7.9 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which is just enough to garner 4 PA stars.

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