Cave In
Moons of Jupiter (2000)

review by: Jason Thornberry
Date: 3/27/02

Someone told me once that the best measure of whether or not a band were capable of truly memorable songwriting skills is if a particular tune can be broken all the way down to a very elementary version of itself and still sound good. Replaying it on piano or acoustic guitar were the examples given, and Lennon/McCartney were the artists by which my well-worn 7 Minutes of Nausea cassette was measured. I must concede that it would be almost impossible to play anything by the latter on a piano, and any guitar would probably be reduced to fragments of wood and saw-dust once it was all over.

I’ve decided that person was correct – especially after hearing Cave In take three numbers from their Jupiter album and boil them, stripping away the raw power chords, anger, and volatile percussion. The re-done, reinterpreted tunes here were much more peaceful – subtle, but their melodies remained very much intact. I couldn’t wait to hear the full length again with this new perspective.