***ALBUM OF THE MONTH | March 2020***
Mandy Moore
Silver Landings
Verve Forecast
Listen Below
Released in May of 2009, Mandy Moore’s sixth studio set Amanda Leigh was an irrevocable turning point for the artist. In the first half of that decade, Moore had been just another face in the pre-fabricated pop crowd. Moore decided to take her leave of that limited space with her fourth LP Coverage (2003). On that gorgeously curated covers project that pulled compositions from a wealth of artists from the 1970s and 1980s, Moore telegraphed what was coming with Wild Hope (2007).
Her fifth album demonstrated that Moore was more than capable of penning her own material in an affable rock-pop vein. When the notices for Wild Hope came back positive—despite its limited commercial legs—she was emboldened to create the sprawling pop-folk-country cinema of Amanda Leigh as confirmation of her musical makeover. Again, although sales for her sixth effort were demure, the reviews remained glowing.
Moore seemed ready to take that next big step when everything suddenly went quiet. While Moore’s acting vocation went from strength to strength—culminating with her most familiar role as Rebecca Pearson in the NBC network drama This Is Us beginning in 2016—she allowed a decade to pass before her seventh long player Silver Landings finally manifested on the Verve Forecast imprint.
In the press leading up to Silver Landings, Moore spoke openly about her struggles with confidence around her artistic identity—a startling confession, to be sure, given the momentum she’d gathered from 2003 up to 2009. Much of that emotional tumult was a byproduct of her ill-fated union with fabled, but troubled singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Upon her separation and eventual divorce from Adams in 2015, Moore met Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith and they married in 2018. Goldsmith is one of a select few to partner with Moore—as a co-writer and session musician—on Silver Landings. But, any concern that Moore’s once shaken creative certitude would lead to a conflict in her sound is quickly banished once the listener journeys into Silver Landings.
The record mostly picks up where Moore left off on Amanda Leigh—with her as the lead content writer and utilizing expansive guitar-pop as her preferred sonic method of choice. Mike Viola, the man who oversaw the Amanda Leigh sessions, returns to Moore’s side to resume production and co-writing duties. However, Silver Landings isn’t a total repeat performance of its immediate forerunner.
The album benefits from Moore’s renewed sense of self that drives its grounded, autobiographical narrative. Her steady growth as a writer is apparent in this regard as well—Moore is still able to collaborate with others without losing her own thematic voice while remaining in solid possession of her technical songcrafting faculties. She gracefully cycles through her experiences—both existentialist (“I’d Rather Lose”) and romantic (“If That’s What It Takes”). And though many of Silver Landings’ entries are bittersweet, they do yield an undertow of hope and knowledge gained too.
Of course, what is a lyric without its accompanying music and a singer to bring them to life? Vocally, Moore holds fast with a clear, feeling tone that warmly colors each cut on the long player. Selections like “Fifteen” and “Forgiveness” surface as two of the strongest examples of her matchless singing style on Silver Landings. In today’s harried popular music landscape, it is easy to peg Moore as a vocalist from “another time”—specifically the palatial, drive-time rock-pop of the mid-to-late 1970s à la Linda Ronstadt or Fleetwood Mac. It’s not a notion that Moore herself has disavowed, but one must be careful to give credit where credit is due.
Moore has always worn her admiration for her various heroes and heroines from this bygone epoch on her sleeve, as Coverage so wonderfully proclaimed. But she has also carved a distinct (and modern) rock-pop aesthetic of her own from Coverage up through to Amanda Leigh. This is central in understanding the slight difference between Amanda Leigh and Silver Landings.
Whereas the stock on Amanda Leigh was brighter and wider in its scope, Silver Landings is taut, rustic and more rhythmic in comparison. The dense, band-based vibe of “When I Wasn’t Watching” and roiling chamber pop air of “Give Me Back My Heart”—the latter composition features as one of two bonus sides on the record’s expanded edition—evince a maturation in Moore’s sound. Not forgoing the ornate production details and vocal harmony intricacies that became hallmarks of her output from Coverage onward, the “thickening” of the grooves and vocals on Silver Landings suggest that there’s now a polite toughness running in tandem with the album’s melodic prettiness too.
One cannot regard Silver Landings as anything other than an unequivocal triumph for Mandy Moore. Assuredly, Moore has even more to show us in the years to come, but Silver Landings marks the occasion that Moore has now taken hold of her artistic sense of self—and she won’t be letting it go.
Notable Tracks: “Fifteen” | “Give Me Back My Heart” | “If That’s What It Takes” | “When I Wasn’t Watching”
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