Rom-coms really did a number on those of us who were promised that the right guy would eventually appear with excellent timing and suspiciously good hair. Alyssa Caroline knows the fantasy because ‘Hey Moon’ starts with her still wanting the fairytale, even after real life has made the whole damn thing considerably less convincing. She wants true love and she would very much like the universe to stop fucking around with delivery. So she takes the complaint upstairs, bypasses the stars entirely and starts talking to the moon. Romantic? Absolutely. A little fed up? Even better. Alyssa lets both feelings exist together, which makes the song sweeter than another glossy story about love magically arriving on schedule.
The production here keeps the frustration from turning into a bedroom sulk. Bright synths and crisp percussion give the indie-pop track enough movement to feel alive, while a quieter bassline keeps the mood grounded underneath all that romantic wishing. The result has the polish of a summer-night pop record with a little emotional side-eye tucked inside. Alyssa can look toward the sky and dream about love while the music reminds you she still has a life happening down here. Thank fuck for that.
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She puts the fantasy right on the table with “I wish my life was a fairytale / Happy endings / No pretending / I’m sick of waiting for wedding bells / I want true love / Just to wake me up.” Then she admits how deeply she still wants the whole ridiculous package: “So I pray and I’m hoping to reach a day / When I find a prince and see him kneel.” Girl, aim high. If he is going to arrive late he can at least have the decency to get down on one knee when he finally shows up.
The chorus is where Alyssa gets funnier about her impatience: “So hey moon it’s your friend / And I’m looking up to you / Cause I’m done wishing on the stars / Tell me who will you send / Cause I know there’s very few / And love is too dang hard.” Apparently the stars have been fired for poor performance and the moon is now handling romantic recruitment. Fair. But the smartest part comes later with “I get by / By myself, I’m not gonna cry / But if he’s right for me, I’ll see it through.” She can handle being alone and still want somebody beside her. That combination gives ‘Hey Moon’ its grown-woman charm. She wants the guy. She does not need to collapse until he arrives.
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Alyssa Caroline came out of Hartland, Wisconsin and studied Music Business and Audio Production at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, which tells me she was interested in understanding the machinery around the songs as well as writing them. Her recorded catalog reaches back to ‘Bump in the Road’, which earned early songwriting recognition, and she kept releasing through the years with songs including ‘Exile’ and ‘Fire to Ash’. She writes and performs her own material while playing instruments too, so the vulnerable singer-songwriter identity in ‘Hey Moon’ has been developing for a while. That history makes this romantic little conversation with the sky feel like another chapter from an artist who has always been willing to put her feelings where everybody can hear them.
‘Hey Moon’ lets Alyssa keep believing in the fairytale while getting considerably smarter about the casting process. She can watch the rom-coms and want the wedding bells without sitting around helplessly waiting for some man to rescue the plot. She already has her own damn life. Now if Mr. Perfect would kindly stop hiding behind the moon and make a move, that would be lovely.
