moodlighting - Party school (2026)
BAND/ARTIST: moodlighting
- Title: Party school
- Year Of Release: 2026
- Label: gopher records
- Genre: Alternative, Dream Pop, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop
- Quality: mp3 320 kbps / flac lossless (tracks)
- Total Time: 00:37:46
- Total Size: 89 / 246 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
01. Molly says
02. Watkins Glen
03. When you die
04. Settle down
05. Silverfish
06. Guardrail
07. Kevin knows I'm miserable now
08. Hotline B-E-E-F
09. In the year 2123
10. Beach flowers
11. Melbourne bitter
12. CBA
13. Rude sometimes
14. Don't wait
15. Playboy
16. Everyone always says this to me
moodlighting (capitalization correct) returns with their new album Party School, making this the seventh time Start-Track has featured the duo from Denver/Los Angeles. Yes, moodlighting have been around our block many times, with their first mention on our humble blog landing way back in 2022. (Ancient history, if you ask me. Frankly, with the world as it is, last week feels like another epoch.)
Sophie (vocals) and Alex (vocals and many other things) put forth their third album as a collection of “songs to learn how to party.” Yet it almost makes for an ironic comment, as the songs carry much of the heaviness and mourning from the band’s previous album Gutter Rabbit. But keen music knowers understand that great music urges us to dance through the darkness. Party School calls for us to do just that, blending jangle-pop beats and uptempo rhythms with reflective lyrics that might make us roll our heads and shoulders around a little.
In fact, the sixteen tracks on Party School – most of which run under three minutes – sound less like your stereotypical party playlist and more like the tunes you might play while swaying pensively in place or while curled up on your couch. I might name-drop The Smiths, as the album track “Kevin knows I’m miserable now” hints at the Hatful of Hollow hit. The record also touches on The Cure, early New Order, early REM, and other New Wave groups with its gloomier guitar tones, pronounced bass, and understated but shimmering vocals. But despite the supposed dreariness of those bands, they always packed clubs full of folks who wanted to party in their own way.
That’s Party School: It’s not asking us to go balls to the wall, but rather, it eases us into the event, taking us by the hand and teaching us how to dance rather than leaving us listless in the crowd. They don’t command us to start jerking and twerking and shaking as other “party” songs might; they tell us stories over which we may ponder as we wave our hands slowly by our sides. “Playboy” might be about the Playboy Mansion, though more about the decline of the institution and the death of Hugh Hefner than its famous orgies. “Guardrail” is about tourists in Melbourne, albeit about being annoyed with them than being one. In these little pockets of displeasure, moodlighting finds the party: As the folk saying goes, “The more you complain, the longer you live.”
Look, not many albums with “Party” in their title are going to feature tracks called “When you die” or “Melbourne bitter” or “Settle down”. But that’s where moodlighting stands out, choosing to unleash the sour and bitter emotions to be able to take in the sweetness of life. If Party School teaches anything, it’s about how to balance gloom and doom with glam and dance, not just in music, but in life. If you party all the time or always wallow in pain, you’ll have a tough time knowing how to process emotion or how to celebrate the moments that deserve elation.
As moodlighting tell stories throughout Party School, they remind us that even reflecting on little moments – especially the menial and mediocre ones – are a major part of life, and therefore worth our while. “Beach Flowers” is all about sitting in traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, “Rude sometimes” is about an unwanted suitor in Melbourne, and “Everyone always says this to me” is about the constant questions that Sophie and Alex get asked about being in a band. It may seem like none of these situations deserve songs on an album supposedly about anything related to partying. And yet, that is the point! Life itself is the party! For if we can’t write jangle pop bangers about traffic, what can we write songs about? How else are we supposed to process our pain and frustration?
Party School is a lovely new album from moodlighting, made for those who may not feel like rolling up to the club and cutting a rug underneath hot lights and loud beats, but just want something to which they can bop around while struggling to get out of bed. One might say Party School is fundamental education, and attendance is mandatory.
01. Molly says
02. Watkins Glen
03. When you die
04. Settle down
05. Silverfish
06. Guardrail
07. Kevin knows I'm miserable now
08. Hotline B-E-E-F
09. In the year 2123
10. Beach flowers
11. Melbourne bitter
12. CBA
13. Rude sometimes
14. Don't wait
15. Playboy
16. Everyone always says this to me
moodlighting (capitalization correct) returns with their new album Party School, making this the seventh time Start-Track has featured the duo from Denver/Los Angeles. Yes, moodlighting have been around our block many times, with their first mention on our humble blog landing way back in 2022. (Ancient history, if you ask me. Frankly, with the world as it is, last week feels like another epoch.)
Sophie (vocals) and Alex (vocals and many other things) put forth their third album as a collection of “songs to learn how to party.” Yet it almost makes for an ironic comment, as the songs carry much of the heaviness and mourning from the band’s previous album Gutter Rabbit. But keen music knowers understand that great music urges us to dance through the darkness. Party School calls for us to do just that, blending jangle-pop beats and uptempo rhythms with reflective lyrics that might make us roll our heads and shoulders around a little.
In fact, the sixteen tracks on Party School – most of which run under three minutes – sound less like your stereotypical party playlist and more like the tunes you might play while swaying pensively in place or while curled up on your couch. I might name-drop The Smiths, as the album track “Kevin knows I’m miserable now” hints at the Hatful of Hollow hit. The record also touches on The Cure, early New Order, early REM, and other New Wave groups with its gloomier guitar tones, pronounced bass, and understated but shimmering vocals. But despite the supposed dreariness of those bands, they always packed clubs full of folks who wanted to party in their own way.
That’s Party School: It’s not asking us to go balls to the wall, but rather, it eases us into the event, taking us by the hand and teaching us how to dance rather than leaving us listless in the crowd. They don’t command us to start jerking and twerking and shaking as other “party” songs might; they tell us stories over which we may ponder as we wave our hands slowly by our sides. “Playboy” might be about the Playboy Mansion, though more about the decline of the institution and the death of Hugh Hefner than its famous orgies. “Guardrail” is about tourists in Melbourne, albeit about being annoyed with them than being one. In these little pockets of displeasure, moodlighting finds the party: As the folk saying goes, “The more you complain, the longer you live.”
Look, not many albums with “Party” in their title are going to feature tracks called “When you die” or “Melbourne bitter” or “Settle down”. But that’s where moodlighting stands out, choosing to unleash the sour and bitter emotions to be able to take in the sweetness of life. If Party School teaches anything, it’s about how to balance gloom and doom with glam and dance, not just in music, but in life. If you party all the time or always wallow in pain, you’ll have a tough time knowing how to process emotion or how to celebrate the moments that deserve elation.
As moodlighting tell stories throughout Party School, they remind us that even reflecting on little moments – especially the menial and mediocre ones – are a major part of life, and therefore worth our while. “Beach Flowers” is all about sitting in traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, “Rude sometimes” is about an unwanted suitor in Melbourne, and “Everyone always says this to me” is about the constant questions that Sophie and Alex get asked about being in a band. It may seem like none of these situations deserve songs on an album supposedly about anything related to partying. And yet, that is the point! Life itself is the party! For if we can’t write jangle pop bangers about traffic, what can we write songs about? How else are we supposed to process our pain and frustration?
Party School is a lovely new album from moodlighting, made for those who may not feel like rolling up to the club and cutting a rug underneath hot lights and loud beats, but just want something to which they can bop around while struggling to get out of bed. One might say Party School is fundamental education, and attendance is mandatory.
| Pop | Rock | FLAC / APE | Mp3
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