Just out of high school, feeling stuck in a wasted gap year in her New Hampshire hometown before heading to college, Emily Moales found herself in serious need of an escape. Looking around at her rural New England surroundings, the multi-instrumentalist began blurring the lush greenery of reality with that of Medieval Britain. “I’m perpetually reading TH White’s The Once and Future King. I’ll pick it back up again every few months, and it will always resonate with what’s going on in my life,” Moales explains. Infusing imagery from the epic tale of King Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere into intensely personal songwriting, Moales found that escape in creating the sublime Camelot. First released digitally in 2018 and now getting its first physical issue via Earth Libraries on TK, the record is a sterling statement of the New Hampshirite’s work as Star Moles and her ability to craft timeless yet eternally present bedroom pop gems. Though she first envisioned Camelot as a way to escape her reality, the record equally provided a way to address it head on. As a prime example, album highlight “Not My Heart” takes a tale of unrequited love on a Casiotone waltz before bursting into a classic AM pop jangle, the imagery of Camelot swirling through the mix like a fluttering banner. Moales’ bronzed vocals sit front and center on the track and album at large, surrounded by a robust instrumental tapestry--though much like the album cover’s blend of Medieval font and shag carpeting, every bit of regal clarity is matched with warmly retro tones.
