Description
Locket full of Moonlight is the sophomore solo album by the American singer and songwriter Bill Mallonee of Vigilantes of Love fame, released on Paste Music in December 2002, in co-operation with Mallonee’s own label Meat Market Records. The album was recorded by Mark Cooper-Smith, Michael C. Steele, and Jay Rogers at Full Moon Studios in Watkinsville, Georgia; between October 23rd and 29th, and was produced by Mallonee and Cooper-Smith. Featuring Mallonee on guitars and harmonica, Steele on bass and Cooper-Smith on drums and piano. “Most of the tunes were written within a week to just a day or so before… a lot of these tunes are sad, lonely and perhaps a trifle dark… and some of them aren’t. Bill M.”
Re-issued in the UK by Fundamental Records the following year featuring six bonus tracks as well as new cover art.
In the dictionary, next to the definition of prolific, there ought to be a picture of Bill Mallonee. The long-time frontman for the Athens, GA band Vigilantes of Love has released his second solo album, Locket Full of Moonlight, and it is astonishing that for all his volume, his releases continue to be top shelf. This release is his second in a year as a solo artist. When he was with VOL, he released 12 full-length albums, including all three versions of Audible Sigh, and four EPs – this in roughly 10 years. In 2002 alone, he released his first solo album, Fetal Position, as well as a remastered version of My Year In Review before December’s offering, Moonlight.
Continuing in essentially the same musical vein as Fetal Position, Mallonee experiments with various guitar effects and drumbeats more “trippy” than those found on VOL releases. But Moonlight seems to be a marriage of Brit-pop guitar sounds found on both Fetal Position and VOL’s last release Summershine with the introspective darkess of VOL’s brilliant Alt-country record Audible Sigh. For example, the opening title track of Moonlight would be at home on Fetal Position, yet the Moonlight reprise which closes the record has a decidedly Audible Sigh or Blister Soul sound. The tracks on the record range from those with a Brit-pop-with-swirling-guitars feel to more straight-ahead folk tunes.
Mallonee continues to explore the themes, images and metaphors which have marked his decade or so of songwriting. Angels, moonlight, long journeys, and life’s harder lessons ooze from every song. Relationships and finding the words to say what needs to be said figure prominently on «Table for Two», «Shellshocked» and «After the Glow». Stories and metaphors have always been a hallmark of Mallonee’s more folk-tinged tunes, and such is the case on «Sweetness and Light», «Overflow» and «Rearview Mirror».
The autobiographical ache, which runs through all Mallonee’s albums at least as far back as the 1994 VOL release Welcome to Struggleville, is not to be left out, even when rocking on a song such as «Jaws of Life».
Mallonee’s ability to use words as mirrors to our souls, while simultaneously reflecting something much larger than any single individual, places him in rare company as a songwriter. He is adept at saying “the things we cannot speak of, the secrets we all know,” which hang onto our blistered souls with unmitigated tenacity.
Mallonee’s lyrics are typically solid, convicting, and self-revelatory. He bleeds for us openly, “some soft and some on 10,” as he sings in «Dirty Job», and in so doing exposes our souls in a mysterious yet undeniable way. We all have felt the hope of the locket full of moonlight – or hoped and dreamed we would find such a locket, only to lose it at times throughout our lives – or realized that it is so easy to lose and wondered if, once we had it, we could hold onto it.
We have exulted in finding someone who is sweetness and light and then had to say “goodbye,” or we have said goodbye and found ourselves at his table for two with our hearts breaking – or feared that we would find ourselves at such a table. Failure is a dirty job we have all had to do, and we know we will do more of it in the future as we wrestle with who we really are instead of who we wish we were – a dominant theme running through this collection of tunes.
Mallonee also touches on the ways we all try to fill the aches of life with something we think will satisfy us only to find the heartache sucks after the glow – and at those moments we are, indeed, shellshocked. Life has a way of pounding the life out of our hearts and we could all use a locket full of moonlight. Like so many of Bill’s albums, Locket Full of Moonlight really requires numerous listens in order to get from it the depth of things Mallonee touches on. Again, Mallonee is not only prolific, but also insightful, touching the soul song after song. [James Cordrey, Chasing Hats, February 13, 2003]
CD tracklist:
01. Locket Full Of Moonlight – 4:03
02. Shellshocked – 5:25
03. After The Glow – 4:23
04. Sweetness & Light – 3:40
05. Table For Two – 4:35
06. Overflow – 3:59
07. Jaws Of Life – 3:25
08. Rearview Mirror – 4:39
09. Dirty Job – 4:05
10. Locket Full Of Moonlight (Causal Reprise) – 4:25
Bonus tracks, 2003 UK-version:
11. Hat In Hand – 3:47
12. I’m Not There – 3:57
13. Half Mast – 4:55
14. Bearing The Load – 4:01
15. Weight Of Glory – 3:39
16. Going South – 5:29
Note: Available at: http://billmalloneemusic.bandcamp.com/album/locket-full-of-moonlight-16-song-uk-version
Locket full of Moonlight, Cover Artwork UK version, Fundamental Records 2003
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