"drop out" by star moles

A memory.

I'm sitting in the back of my Horror and Monstrosity class at school, staring out the window. It's a gloomy October afternoon, right around four, and I wish that I were just about anywhere else. As Alien (1979) plays on the projector in front of me, I slip in my headphones and press play on an EP from an artist that has been on my radar for awhile. Synths and sounds make their way into my ears, drowning out Sigourney Weaver's screams on screen. For a moment, my wish of transporting elsewhere is granted. Something close to an out of body experience occurs.

I am hooked.

Star Moles, or the moniker used by singer-songwriter Emily Moales, is to blame. Her band is in the same universe as a handful of other satisfyingly psychedelic acts (MGMT, Foxygen, etc). Still, her music is acutely her own - quiet, perceptive, and sincere. It's somewhat like bedroom pop; much of Moales' Bandcamp catalog was recorded at home or in her dorm room at the University of New Hampshire. It is also the kind of music perfect for avoiding the world to. Moales has since dropped out of school to focus on her art. The result is Drop Out, a seven track EP that speaks to so much more than that.

Drop Out is what I imagine floating through space, or waking up in the middle of a dream, feels like. The nuanced opening of "Waiting for Ur Love" leads listeners into Star Moles' weird and whimsical world by the hand. It's one you may recognize parts of yourself in. "California Baby" speaks so truly to my own desire to leave Brooklyn and head out West one day that it hurts. While infused with soothing keys and synths, the lyrics are the best part. "I think I'm gonna puke my guts out if I gotta go back to school" is a sentiment that we all can probably relate to at one point or another.

Cosmic chaos aside, Star Moles writes songs that feel like home to anyone who may be struggling to find their place. "White Dwarf," somewhere in the realm of Renaissance rock, is still self-aware. There's something literary in lyrics like "I don't want to be a black hole," reaching into depths that we didn't know were there. "The Moment of Truth," an ode to those we love and wish to love, slows things down. A runaway cowboy, a rockstar in love with the stars - all of these characters come together in the story of this record and of Moales herself. It's the fairy tale that we all hope to live in one day. It's the escape that art can bring.

Drop Out is a record that will transport you elsewhere, and that you will have an experience exploring. At times, it plays like an existential crisis, but one that is understood and appreciated. Star Moles feels like the friend down the hall that you can have a conversation with at three in the morning; the kind of person that gets the world as you see it. I hear an artist that is paving their own path for themselves. As Moales sings, "nobody cares what you do."

Sometimes, you've just got to take the plunge and do it.

Indulge in the cosmic experience that is Star Moles here.

Words by Carly.