I think we all needed something to get us through the early months of the pandemic. The uncertainty. The depression. The helplessness. The feelings of guilt that came with that helplessness. Everyone needed something to distract them. To make them feel productive at a time when the Earth was standing still. This blog was that for me. What became At The Moment was apparently something similar for renowned Irish producer Mano Le Tough. Even though it came out of a period of strife, the album is heedless in its optimism. It is clearly motivated by a sense that art is an unsinkable vessel. A stout craft, that when let out to sea, even in stormy weather, it will return its passengers home in health and hearty spirits (and maybe even a little more enlighted for the journey). I think this accounts for the new agey vibrations of opener "Man of Aran" where funnels of high-spirited sound work to reshuffle your humors like an antique dealer reorganizing a bookshelf in her shop- prioritizing the essentials and putting the rest in storage. The chilled-out electric atmosphere of "Empty Room" leaves plenty of space for you to settle into amongst its mellow and blurry textures and "Short Cuts" combines adult contemporary guitar-pop with a panache of rave percussion. A mood of togetherness pervades the fireside acoustics and metronomic claps of "Moment of Change," a sentimentality that is further explored on the expansive sunset-colored, steeldrum adorn "No Road Without A Turn." You can't always be happy. You can't always be in control. But with At The Moment, you can at least feel at home- or at the very least, at peace.
