Marlaena Moore - Because You Love Everything
Session
Released on January 17th, 2025
Marlaena Moore’s latest album Because You Love Everything is a dreamlike jangle-pop meditation on self-reflection, vulnerability, and the relentless need for creativity in spite of, well, everything. Introspective and yearning, Moore’s smooth-timbre vocals carry an earnest melancholia, tempered by the small victories of revelation and the gentle embrace of compassion turned inward. It’s an album that feels both deeply personal and relatable, offering a plea for openness that acknowledges the weight of uncertainty while choosing hope anyway.
Originally from Edmonton and now based in Montreal, Moore’s strength as a songwriter has always been her authenticity. Her big-hearted openness invites listeners in, and her expressive range allows her to navigate moments of tenderness and intensity with equal grace. Initially titled I Don’t Really Know What I’m Doing Anymore, this latest record was written and recorded during the pandemic in the basement of co-producer Scott “Monty” Munro’s parents’ home. (Munro, known for his work with Preoccupations, brings a neon-lit nostalgia and dreamy synthscape to much of the record’s production.) The working title speaks to an uncertainty Moore has grappled with personally as well as professionally, throughout a career marked by stops, starts, and the ever-shifting terrain of the music industry.
That disorientation is understandable, especially given that Moore’s previous album Pay Attention, Be Amazed! was released at possibly the worst imaginable time, dropping in March of 2020. While many who had been following her development as an artist had anticipated that record would be her long-overdue breakout, instead it arrived into the world at a moment when touring opportunities evaporated and the industry went dark – a creative rugpull that stifled the momentum Moore had rightfully earned at that time. In this context, Because You Love Everything feels like a testament to her resilience as an artist, and maybe like something of a comeback.
Musically, the album moves through an array of textures and moods, while staying grounded in lush, atmospheric production. Lead single “Running on Empty” layers dramatic synthpop flourishes over patient percussive fills, evoking an ‘80s-tinged romanticism that feels expansive and emotionally full. Lyrically, it explores the exhaustion of feeling trapped in a stifling relationship: “I’ve been running on empty, I’ve been so reckless with me.” Elsewhere, “Hungry for God” taps into a deliciously grungy alt-‘90s angst, offering up echoes of Catherine Wheel filtered through the fog of Twin Peaks. The haunting parting line of “I break everything I touch and I hurt everyone I love” lingers long after the song ends.
On “Pacer,” Moore delivers one of the album’s most striking lyrics: “I will never be good enough, that’s such a great relief.” It’s a stoic sentiment that distills the record’s themes of self-acceptance and surrender, and an understanding that maybe chasing impossible expectations isn’t the point. Closing track “Unfaded” ends the album with a starry synth-driven denouement, and the quiet revelation that “the truest love you’ve ever known has been inside you all along.”
Because You Love Everything is further evidence that Moore is one of those artists who should be bigger than they are. Her music is as relentlessly open-chested and honest as ever, her songwriting deeply felt and generously offered. This should be an album that gets a lot of new listeners to pay attention, and be amazed.
- Julie Maier