Brooklyn-based global groove band City of the Sun returns with their new album Under the Moon. Produced by legendary Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Built to Spill), the record marks a kind of reinvention for the band, blending influences from Latin folk, indie rock, and blues into a genre-crossing sound.
The album is dense, featuring 13 tracks, and belongs to a type of record that feels increasingly rare today – one with a strong focus on cohesion and flow. The opening track, Un Disparo al Corazón, immediately draws you into the world of Under the Moon with its acoustic fingerpicking. Repetitive and hypnotic, with subtly tribal percussion at times, the six-minute piece gradually builds into a cinematic, hopeful climax.
The following track, London, opens with a more conventional rhythm and, unlike the opener, carries a certain western charm. Its motoric drums are reminiscent of The War on Drugs, while the guitar work feels like it was lifted straight from a modern Western film.
Hotel Alma immediately stands out with a guitar motif that transports the listener to distant, unfamiliar landscapes – a feeling reinforced by the rhythm itself. This is perhaps the album’s greatest strength: its ability to evoke vivid imagery and encourage a sense of travel. Even while writing this review from a hospital room, these immersive moods offer a welcome escape into entirely different places.
Vuela is the first track to feature vocals – performed in Spanish – continuing the Latin-influenced atmosphere combined with African rhythmic inspiration from earlier tracks. Created with Spanish singer-songwriter Gizmo Varillas, it serves as a refreshing change of pace.
Angeles takes me to Los Angeles, where I spent a few weekends on vacation, capturing that surf-infused, sun-drenched atmosphere. My favorite moment arrives around the two-minute mark, when the track shifts into a crystalline, beautiful melody – for me, one of the album’s highlights.
In the middle section of the album, we find Saw You in a Dream, followed by Cinderella Man and Ciudad. Cinderella Man is more restrained and emotional, gradually building into a fuller, more energetic – yet still emotionally charged – climax. Ciudad, on the other hand, takes a more subdued approach.
From the second half, War stands out as an energetic highlight and could easily have been a hit single – I even found myself wondering how much a vocal line might have elevated it further. Still, it works effectively as an instrumental powerhouse.
The closing stretch of the album features its longest tracks. Twenty Twenty One, nearly seven minutes long, has a post-rock-like build and leans into more emotive styles such as slowcore, making it one of my personal highlights. Latin-inspired tracks Ella and Bajo la Luna lead into the final, also seven-minute piece, Metamorphosis, which once again returns us to desert-like, western landscapes. While the title may allude to Franz Kafka’s work, this track instead evokes the world of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Around the three-and-a-half-minute mark, a beautiful acoustic atmospheric bridge emerges, leading into a full-bodied finale driven by bass, drums, and electric guitar. By the end, we find ourselves in a dimly lit bar on the edge of a desert town, where this journey comes to a close – and what a captivating journey it has been.
This album was discovered via Submit Hub
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