Special Guest Review

Few things bring more joy to my life than when someone goes out of their way to help support something I am passionate for. Recently a friend sent over a review he wrote of a record I have never heard before and it totally made my day. The album at first did not seem "up my alley," but the more I have listened to Pneuma the more I have liked it. I hope you enjoy the following review and give this album a chance.

- Greg

Moving Mountains - Pneuma

For the first time since I heard The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (November 2006) and In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (around the same time), I have found an album that, in all truth, has completely captivated me from start to finish. Moving Mountains' Pneuma is a work that requires much more than a casual listen. To catch the full beauty, it may require a night sitting up in bed with a pair of quality headphones or a spin on a record player with close friends and a bottle of whiskey.

Regardless of how you may choose to take it in, Pneuma will seize your mind and your heart with its simple, heartfelt lyrics and fearless instrumentals. The album crosses genres, with hints of the ambient wonder that is Brian Eno, a touch of the powerful drumbeats that drove early pop-punk, slicing guitar riffs reminiscent of Alexisonfire, and elaborate intersections of the style of The Fall of Troy and Band of Horses. However, Pneuma is much more than just a cross-section of genres and styles, it's just hard to say what it is exactly. And that's okay. Finally, an album that just "is".

Pneuma opens with the powerful "Aphelion", a heartfelt song with a couple screams that may ward off casual listeners. When taken into context of the full album, however, they blend in with some of the instrumentation and seem to mark a climactic point. "Aphelion" rips open the proverbial "can of worms", with the rest of the built-up emotion to subsequently flow forth.

In the album's second track, "Cover the Roots, Lower the Stems", we are introduced to the single lyrical theme of the album: that the writer feels as if he is the earth- natural, pure, and humbled by the presence of something even greater and more awesome. That presence is that of the sun, which can be perceived as the woman, his lover, and is incredibly powerful, bright, and bold.

Vocalist Gregory Dunn's voice yearns to become one with the sun, reaching the eventual point of crying out "you, you're like the sun and I am earth, together we're one. But someday your fire will die and I'll grow cold without sunlight. And I will freeze, baby, I will die. I'd freeze, I'd die for you," and then, "someday the sun will die and I'll grow cold. I hope someday your love finds its way home."

Despite having such incredibly simple and true lyrics, Pneuma really brings a sense of completeness. After just one listen straight through, you will feel content. So content, in fact, that after my first full listen, I laid in bed with my eyes closed for twenty minutes, with not even a single thought daring to enter my mind. And just as Dunn's vocals beg to be brought together and become one with his lover, the listener, even if only for a brief moment, also feels that togetherness. And that, to me, is enough. It's the most I've been moved by an album in recent memory, and I guarantee that the aptly named Moving Mountains will be a band that continues to produce such heartfelt classics as Pneuma for years to come.

Rating: 95/100

- Dan Mullin