review: Moonlight Desires

Moonlight Desires

At The Movies

Infamous Butcher Records

17 July 2020

Moonlight Desires does four covers--in the style of hard rock/heavy metal/pop punk--of 1980s hits: “Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera, “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen, “The Goonies R Good Enough” by Cindy Lauper, and “Don’t You Forget about Me” by Simple Minds. The first cover is not good because Peter Cetera has a very unique voice that sounds so vulnerable, melodic and melancholic. Here we hear the main problem with the cover: the lack of great singing. It is a rather typical male voice, not annoying nor strange but not outstanding, either. Another example is the fourth song. It works a little bit better because of original song’s singing is a-ok midrange male singing, an “everyman” voice done well but not fantastic singing. Here the cover’s singing is like a 4 out 10, maybe 5 out of 10, and it’s nothing to write home about. It is not irritating, but it’s not exciting to hear. In contrast, for example, the power metal bands SkeleToon and Cellador have covered the Cindy Lauper song and those sound much better because they have the singers with the skills to do this in a more professional, skilled way. This recording is not truly awful and it’s not particularly irritating. It may remind you a heavier version (with worse singing) of Green Day, sort of. It may provide some quick entertainment value for the moment but not for the long term.

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