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Reviewed by Charlotte Crone

Eli Moore: Ship Life

Reviewed by Charlotte Crone

Eli Moore: Ship Life

As the title suggests, this album is guided by a slight autobiographical narrative about a musician living on board on a cruise ship. The opening track even welcomes you into what feels like a piano lounge, showing off Eli Moore ’s entertainment abilities in all areas as pianist, singer and composer.

Perhaps representing various different ports of call, there’s a wide range of genres, styles and instrumentation in evidence. All the playing is well executed and captured with high production standards. Lush strings and intricate harmony shifts in tracks like Go give way to more rocky numbers like I Got This, and even a Latin flavour in Lost In Palamos.

Eli Moore is based in Auckland, but going by the lyrics here he has travelled a lot. ‘Ship Life’ is his debut album, yet it feels as though he might have produced a bunch of music before. The album is self-produced, with the assistance of Vivek Gabriel who recorded the majority of the tracks at Black Orange Studios in Auckland. Gabriel and Moore both had a part in mixing the album which was mastered by Chris Chetland at Kog Studio.