Half Moon Run: Dark Eyes – review

With their spidery guitars and precise harmonies, Montreal quartet Half Moon Run are, at least on paper, the quintessential indie-rock outfit of their age – one part Fleet Foxes to two parts Arcade Fire. Certainly their debut album's opener, Full Circle, and the sparse Unofferable wouldn't shame either band, singer Devon Portielje's quivering voice echoing Jeff Buckley while the music underlines that sometimes less is more. Such drama, though, is absent from Dark Eyes' second half, most of which could have been crafted in the 90s and, for all Portielje's efforts, is too sterile to excite.