If I asked you where I could find a German folk band that produces a sound reminiscent of festival weekends and summers gone by, Milky Chance is the obvious answer. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated by their third studio album Mind The Moon, released on November 15.

Of course, their trademark simple folk tunes overlapping lead singer Clemens Rehbein’s distinguishable vocals are still to be heard, but one major thing about this album has let me down – it’s so damn repetitive.

Whilst listening to many of the songs on Mind The Moon, I realised I was hearing the same simple lyrics over steady continuous beats over and over again…so much so, I often couldn’t tell one song from the last.

A prime example of this is the album’s first track Fado. For a song featured in FIFA 2020 and the opener for the album, I expected an upbeat and punchy tune to kick us off. The chorus is so catchy that doesn’t leave your head for days, just not in an infectious, “Wow, hit that repeat button!” kind of way…more of an annoying, “Please stop, it’s 2:30 am and I’m trying to sleep” kind of way. Yeah, I wasn’t a fan.

Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana features on the track Daydreaming, but simply not long enough for their sweet, soulful verse to save a song that mostly consists of unmemorable lyrics. The music video is cool though. Reminiscent of a Wes Anderson film, if Wes Anderson made a music video for his A-level college coursework during a six-hour trip.

Overall, I think this album was better suited for a summer release. To me, it gives off campsite-background-noise vibes rather than autumnal simplicity.

I know Milky Chance isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. They like to keep it understated whilst dabbling with elements found in a spectrum of music genres including folk, electronic and jazz, so with such an eclectic repertoire, I had high hopes for the band that usually mixes these ingredients so subtly. Unfortunately, although Mind The Moon is still recognisably their sound, it was just too lacklustre for my liking. It was missing the variation and range in tempo that I so desperately wanted to hear from them. Maybe I was depending on them to transport me back to summer days in a field with a tinny in hand a little too much.

2/5 stars.