Betty Moon “Hellucination” – NEW MUSIC REVIEW

Posted 23 Aug 2019 in 10s, Albums of 2019, Indie, New Album Review, Pop

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1018 in the Series) is Hellucination.

Los Angeles based songwriter/ producer Betty Moon has been a familiar name in her native Toronto scene since the early 90s. Over the span of over two decades, Moon has released over nine studio albums and countless singles to keep her name top of mind. What’s unique with Moon is that without substantial touring she has managed to maintain a long term career which is credited to “finding other creative ways to spread the word including streaming music, local shows, licensing and selling physical product.” There’s no question her music is stellar and her brand is 110% individual, which we can see from just checking out some of her past releases including Pantomania, Chrome and Rollin’ Revolution.

Ms. Moon started her career at an age where most musicians are likely studying for homework, let alone focusing on a growing opportunity to tour professionally while selling 10,000+ albums without a record label. After signing with A&M Records and being nominated for multiple CASBY awards in Canada, Moon took things to a new level and over the years released several albums in Canada before relocating to Los Angeles to run her own company Evolver Music, Inc. We’re told “Los Angeles had long been calling my name” says Moon, and “there was everything I needed on the level of inspiration, songwriting and networking to continue and grow as a professional musician.”

Hellucination was released in May of 2019 and has been carried by the singles “Save My Soul,” “Violent City” and “Crazy” which has multiple remixes recently released online. The 11 track album leads with “Save My Soul” which has rich textures of synthwave influences, 80s pulses and the consistency that we can obviously see that many Moon fans have grown to expect and love. The tracks are sensual and primarily EDM influenced at times, but at other moments the electronic elements take a back seat to 90s guitar riff rock on tracks like “Get Your Gun.” The range of sounds seem to work really well on Hellucination, and clearly Moon knows what she is doing on the songwriting side of things.

Betty Moon produced the album in her Southern California home studio in which she handled all of the engineering and mixing duties while enlisting the help of some of her favorite studio musicians and friends to bring the tracks to life. The album was written and produced throughout 2018 and is the follow-up to her 2017 album Chrome. We also highly suggest giving Moon’s entire catalog a listen with songs like “Sound,” “Time To Move On,” “Valentine” and a killer cover of Depeche Mode’s iconic hit “No Good.” Hellucination is out now via online streaming sources.

– Bob Bradley