Betty Moon’s “Strangely Beautiful” Is For Yearning, Wanting, And Everything In Between

If you can’t decide whether you want to sit with your feelings or make a few questionable decisions tonight, you might just find Betty Moon’s Strangely Beautiful a great addition to your playlist.

Los Angeles-based artist, songwriter, and producer Betty Moon is back, and this time, she’s got a six-track EP that moves between yearning, occasional existential spiral, and full-blown desire all throughout.

The EP opens with Last Night,and if you’ve ever had a rainy feeling that sends you straight into relapse and rereading old messages, you’ll probably get it. The keys are slow, while her vocals carry grief so well you’d almost forget it wasn’t yours in the first place. It’s the kind of track that perfectly bottles the feeling of someone occupying a little too much space in your head.

Whatever the first track established is quickly disrupted by A Taxi Ride. It’s hypnotic, playful, and a little flirtier for nights where you feel like making questionable decisions you’ve been holding off for months. Portugal. The Man’s Live in the Moment follows, but with Moon’s take adding more the track’s bittersweet edge. For some reason, her cover keeps you suspended in a nostalgic space where memories of youth and longing intertwine.

Soulfly has that indie-rock edge and a whiskey-soaked energy that will have you turn the volume up just to drown whatever’s going on in your head. Hunger Pain is like A Taxi Ride but the part where you’ve officially lost the plot. The lyrics are feverish, obsessive, and unapologetically intense, not playing hard to get.

Want Me To is such a chic, sleek way to end the EP. Think of fixing your hair in the club’s bathroom mirror before heading back out to the person who’s living rent free in your mind. The song has that polished, seductive energy of someone who knows exactly what they want and has no plans of pretending otherwise.

There’s something really fitting about calling this record Strangely Beautiful. Sometimes it’s longing, sometimes it’s seductive, and sometimes it’s the kind of chaotic desires you can’t help but find yourself drawn to. And while there are a pool of collections that revolve around the same romance and desire, Moon somehow keeps the project less predictable through her exceptional lyricism and musicality.

If this is her first project as an independent artist since 2021’s Cosmicoma, Moon has certainly set the bar high. And wherever her creative freedom takes her next, she’s given plenty of reason to pay attention to whatever comes next after Strangely Beautiful.