The Milk Carton Youngsters dive into their breathtakingly lovely seventh album ‘I Solely See the Moon,’ a soul-stirring, cinematic, and achingly uncooked love letter to loss and reconciliation, connection and catharsis.

“All Of The Time In The World To Kill” – The Milk Carton Youngsters

“The world gained’t finish the way in which you suppose or once you suppose it’ll,” The Milk Carton Youngsters sing in the beginning of their seventh album. “Time’s a thief, why are we standing nonetheless? We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill…” On paper, these phrases really feel ominous – barely haunting, even – and but, when sung in candy harmonic unison by Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, they’re tender and soothing – a consolation for the ears, the thoughts, and the guts. It’s a becoming manner for the three-time Grammy nominees to kick off their second decade collectively, to not point out a wonderful begin to one of the vital intimate information of their profession: A soul-stirring, cinematic, and achingly uncooked love letter to loss and reconciliation, connection and catharsis, The Milk Carton Youngsters’ I Solely See the Moon is a breathtakingly lovely addition to the fashionable people canon.

The world gained’t finish the way in which
you suppose or once you suppose it’ll
Time’s a thief, why are we standing nonetheless?
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill

The ladies don’t smile so free and
so wild however they go on smiling nonetheless
And proper they’re, each evening’s for the celebrities
They’ve received all the time on the planet to kill
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill

Launched Might 19, 2023 by way of Far Cry Information / Thirty Tigers, I Solely See the Moon is a surprising addition to The Milk Carton Youngsters’ already celebrated repertoire.

Based in Los Angeles over ten years in the past by singer/songwriters Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, The Milk Carton Youngsters emerged within the late 2010s as a need-to-know identify within the American people circuit. Albums like 2011’s Prologue, 2013’s The Ash & Clay, 2015’s Monterey, and 2018’s All of the Issues That I Did and All of the Issues That I Didn’t Do setting the band aside as they delved into the depths of folks and Americana music, exploring and experimenting with vary, depth, and house all whereas conserving true to their roots.

Longtime followers of the band would possibly very properly think about their new album a homecoming of types, they usually’d be the primary ones to agree.

“Twelve years into our collaboration, we wished to make an album that tapped into no matter that authentic igniting impulse was that drove us collectively within the first place, and see what it could yield greater than a decade later, with the whole lot we’d discovered and all of the methods the world has shifted,” Pattengale and Ryan inform Atwood Journal. “We additionally wished to carry ourselves accountable to writing a set of songs that may actually gentle us up and change into the scaffolding for the subsequent couple years of touring. We initially completed the document in a pair weeks, however threw out most of it to start out over once we realized we’d missed the mark on the songwriting entrance. It was one other yr until we completed and what we ended up with appears to have been price that course of.”

“The primary constraint we positioned on ourselves was that simply the 2 of us could be within the room. However we additionally knew we wouldn’t restrict it to only our two guitars and two voices, as we’d achieved earlier than. So the colours are extra expansive than a few of our previous information, however the intimacy is preserved. We caught to that imaginative and prescient over the yr and a half we had been recording till the final day when our buddy Christian got here to play bass on one track. He nailed it.”

The pair describe I Solely See The Moon as a love letter to loss and reconciliation.

“A turning inward in opposition to the vertiginous technophilic haze in quest of intimacy and timelessness,” as Pattengale places it.

“This document displays each the freedoms and constraints of being a duo. We’ve at all times wished to see how wealthy an image we may paint with our restricted palette, and we undoubtedly reached some new territory on this one, which is thrilling. Largely, the songs really feel necessary to us, which as songwriters is sort of the one barometer we will use to measure our success. I suppose that and Spotify month-to-month streams.”

The album’s title, taken from the attractive, string-laden track of the identical identify, speaks to a lot of the delicate musical and lyrical magic awaiting listeners in each track. “By some means the imagery and metaphors that run all through the album all converge on this track, and this title,” the band clarify. “The phrase factors to all of the thriller, loneliness, and hope we imply to discover.”

These themes and motifs come to life all through I Solely See the Moon‘s ten observe run. Aforementioned album opener “All the Time within the World to Kill” units the scene for all that’s to return: Ethereal, darkish, and mild, the track provides a robust and poignant perspective on life and (after all) time because the pair sing wistfully from views previous and current:

Sleep tonight mendacity nonetheless by my facet
untroubled in your dreaming
And should you change into without end younger
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill

The boys play on– a well-recognized track
They’ll go on singing till the break of daybreak
Blink…now we’re gone
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill

I like you now like I beloved you then
The world should nonetheless be spinning
Without end keep in my arms this manner
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill
We’ve received all the time on the planet to kill

“We began writing it on a tour bus in Alberta a number of years in the past with our buddy Brian Wright,” the duo clarify. “Two youngsters, a wedding, and a pandemic later, the lyrics took on new that means for us and we completed writing it as fully completely different folks than once we started.”

Additional highlights embrace the softly stirring lullaby “Star Shine,” the bluegrass-inspired “When You’re Gone” (one of many band’s private favorites), the enchanting, cinematic title observe “I Solely See the Moon” (a really breathtaking standout), the heartrending Simon & Garfunkel-esque “Operating on Candy Smile,” the sweeping six-minute serenade “North Nation Journey,” and the bittersweet finale, “Will You Keep in mind Me.”

These final two tracks are lyrical highlights for Pattengale and Ryan as properly, as they share two of their favourite traces off the album:

Let’s take the north nation experience
The place it stays gentle to date into the evening
We’ll hold the moon in our eyes
Breathe the ions till the whole lot feels alright

– “North Nation Journey”

Will you bear in mind me
After we had been younger
After we had nothing
After we had nowhere to be

– “Will You Keep in mind Me”

The Milk Carton Youngsters are seven albums deep and over a decade into their profession, and it’s clear they nonetheless have miles to go.

I Solely See the Moon is their most intimate enterprise but, and one which’s properly definitely worth the journey.

“I haven’t been as pleased with the gathering of songs that we’ve placed on document in all probability since our first document, and it’s due to plenty of the teachings we’ve discovered through the years, together with giving your self time and house,” Ryan says.

“Hopefully it transports folks for 40 minutes or so, the place they’re not occupied with the rest, feeling related,” he provides. Additionally hopefully they cry.”

Expertise the complete document by way of our under stream, and peek inside The Milk Carton Youngsters’ I Solely See the Moon with Atwood Journal as Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan take us track-by-track by means of the music and lyrics of their seventh studio album!

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Stream: ‘I Solely See the Moon’ – The Milk Carton Youngsters

:: Inside I Solely See the Moon ::

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All Of The Time In The World To Kill

This one units the tone for the document each thematically and sonically. We began writing it on a tour bus in Alberta a number of years in the past with our buddy Brian Wright. Two youngsters, a wedding, and a pandemic later, the lyrics took on new that means for us and we completed writing it as fully completely different folks than once we started.

Star Shine

Star Shine is likely one of the solely tracks we stood up on simply our two guitars and two voices. Lyrically it lives in that ambiguous house between nostalgia and remorse, the place it typically appears like they’re the identical factor.

When You’re Gone

Our first banjo track! Previous time banjo music has change into a giant affect on our tastes in the previous few years, together with our idea of track construction. This can be a little bit of a contemporary tackle it, and is an ode to buddy and nice banjo participant.

Wheels And Levers

Previous time banjo music will be hypnotic and cyclical, so this looping descending guitar development flows properly from that, with Kenneth’s prolonged guitar explorations main all the way down to the darkest emotional midpoint of the document earlier than we climb again out.

I Solely See The Moon

The title observe is the centerpiece of the album and faucets into most of its main themes and lyrical tropes. It attracts extra from the likes of Chet Baker than any People influences, and sonically it’s the least associated to the remainder of the recordings, but it surely sits on the document’s essential emotional low level earlier than we ascend again to some sense of levity and hope. It actually ties the room collectively.

Operating On Candy Smile

This observe is the primary one we tackled within the studio, and doubtless cements the document’s identification as a “People” album, which is necessary to us. It’s an aesthetic, custom, and neighborhood we’ve felt part of for greater than a decade now, and has supplied an ideal residence for songs of uncertainty and hope like this one.

One True Love

For those who write banjo songs, it’s VERY troublesome to not kill folks in them. Homicide ballads, Appalachian revenge fantasies, Shakesperean tragic deaths — all of the purview of banjo tune. Once more, this track has a contemporary perspective however takes half in that nice custom of premature mortality.

Physique & Soul

A breathless ode to the frenetic and disorienting life-style we reside as touring musicians, however in all probability relatable to anybody within the trendy world. Hold in there, y’all.

North Nation Journey

If there’s one factor we love, it’s an expansive opus to a misplaced love with hovering harmonies and dissonant guitar motifs. Onerous to make a document with out one, truthfully, and by the tip of this one you are feeling such as you’ve ended up in a unique place from the place you began.

Will You Keep in mind Me

A farewell tune that adheres desperately to a want for permanence. It’s good to shut the album with a love track.

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