I dare you to find me someone who didn’t at least like Walk the Moon’s self-titled debut album. It’s just an 11-song marathon of jam after danceable jam infused with glorious rock tropes and infectious pop melodies. Every time I go back to the album I can’t fathom how absolutely catchy it is or how a band was able to hit a home run in their debut. So, when their second album was announced there was the overall feeling of excitement, but an underlying dark feeling of dread that we’d hit a sophomore slump. Walk the Moon took that sentiment and threw it in our faces with the triumphant return that is Talking is Hard.
The album kicks off with their second single off the album, “Different Colors.” The single adroitly gives you a taste of what’s to come. The rock infused journey down the memory lane of 80s pop music, that’s not as straight forward as Bleachers’ Strange Desire, is clear nonetheless.
What this album makes even more prevalent about Walk the Moon is they know how to write a fucking chorus. Try not to shout along to any of them, it’ll pain you. Even if the song surrounding the chorus is subpar, you know that all those progressions lead into something great.
Take for example the clear standout of the record, lead single “Shut Up and Dance.” Its infectious twangy guitar melodies pushed together with an anthemic chorus makes for a song that you have to just… well, shut up and dance. It repeats the success that the band had with their indie hit “Anna Sun,” which had similar qualities. Where “Shut Up and Dance” and the entire album for that matter differs is its journey into other facets of rock like rock n’ roll and even hard rock, which is most prevalent in “Up 2 U.”
However, despite a few digressions toward other genres, the album always comes back to its dance-rock and glorious indie pop roots with songs like “Avalanche”, “Down in the Dumps”, and “Work this Body”, which anchor down the solid second half of the album. Most of the half enforces their 80s leaning pop sound that they’ve been work towards all along, but finally hit with this album. That’s clear with backend standout “Spend Your $$$.”
Where the word maturity comes in is with their new found ability to not simply just put out a succession of dance pop surefire hits. Although that worked with their self-titled, it would doom the band for failure if they kept with it throughout their career. Talking is Hard doesn’t exactly reach the heights of their debut, but it hits a different type of height. It’s a new step on the ladder towards the goal they’ve always been working to. And even if it’s just a step, it’s a damn good one. Maybe even an AOTY contender.
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.