Album Review: Valerie June, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Listening to Valerie June’s The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers is like stumbling on your childhood home in a dream ⎯ soothing and familiar but fantastical too, a recognizable place transmuted to reverie. June’s music is made from common pieces but it’s nothing of the sort; traditional bluegrass, country, folk, gospel and R&B textures are transformed in her hands, becoming something prismatic and alien. 

Her fifth full-length record, The Moon and Stars… sees June at her most unpredictable, every song a glittering vision of layers and unexpected shapes. Opener “Stay” expands and moves like a bank of clouds, June’s warm, peculiar voice holding steady atop shimmering strings, woodwinds and rapid marching drums. The gently creeping “Stardust Scattering” is another immediate highlight, a twinkling slow-burn that crests in a wordless, horn-peppered peak, another example of June’s mastery of texture and world-building. 

The record never truly stumbles, but the run from “Stardust Scattering” to “Within You” is pure magic, finding room for minimal, shapeless ballads, drum machines, soul and detours beyond any obvious genre markers ⎯ it’s June at her most inspired, music that feels both comforting and inexplicable. The Moon and Stars… is a softly brilliant record, one that understands that great heights can feel quiet and small. 

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers was released March 12, 2021.
Listen to it here.