Anika Moa - Love In Motion
So obviously Love in Motion is an album about love. Most of the songs deal with some aspect of love. That's not to say the album is repetitive or that every song sounds the same. From Two Hearts with great opening lyrics; "I will walk in your shoes for a day and rip your heart apart, cos you, you cried over someone that you've lost, but you only want me when there's noone else", to I Am the Woman Who Loves You and it's smitten lyric "being with you is like breathing again". There's a lot of different ground covered.
It's also a pop album. There's a lot of '80's pop-ness' in the music. Running through the Fire reminds me a tad of Ladyhawke. Moa has a great band on this album and she uses them. The music only adds to the personal lyrics and Moa's tender voice. On Love Me Again the music reflects Moa's heartfelt vocals. The result is quite lovely. The track Love in Motion is on first listen kind of bubblegum pop sounding but once again the lyrics are very honest so you can't help but like it. My favourite lyric is "I will steal a car and head for you". "In The Air" reminds me of my fear of flying, it's still about love but it's like the conversation you have with your loved one before your plane plunges into the ocean. Well that's what I got from it anyway.
If you're an Anika Moa fan I don't see any reason why you wouldn't like this album. It's different from her other work but in a 'she's evolved as a singer/songwriter' kind of way. Her voice is still as tender and sweet as it ever was. She's still being honest and wearing her heart on her sleeve but Love in Motion seems more self-assured than anything else I've heard from Moa. I don't feel like she's trying to prove anything to anyone.
Reviewed for Amplifier by Jo Tindling
