Graveyard Mountain Home - Reception

Reception

Graveyard Mountain Home was generally well received. Rick Anderson of Allmusic regarded the album as "a surprisingly affecting and powerful work." Writing for Sea of Tranquility, Michael Popke noted that "If you listen to Graveyard Mountain Home as a stand-alone piece of music... you probably won't be overly impressed. If, however, you hear this sophisticated mix of dark, ambient post-rock and psychedelic sounds while viewing the 1955 public-domain film Age 13, you may consider multi-instrumentalist Kevin Moore a small-time genius." Popke speculated that if Moore created more albums based on obscure films, "he might just alter the face of the genre." Martien Koolen of DPRP described Graveyard Mountain Home as "a typical album for dark, wintry afternoons," although conceded that "it is not cup of tea."

Koolen described the music as having "absolutely no connection or Dream Theater influences whatsoever... Kevin Moore mixes dark ambient, post-rock and psychedelic music to create Chroma Key’s music." He compared the album's sound to that of Tortoise, Millenia Nova, Sigur Rós and early Pink Floyd. Anderson said that the album "sounds more like a twisted collaboration between Gábor Csupó and Muslimgauze than anything else you're likely to hear on the InsideOut label."

Rachel Jablonski of Stream of Consciousness described the overall feel of the album as "somewhat calm and bleak. Yet throughout, a distant brightness prevails whether via musical tone or mental imagery in a very subtle way." Anderson said that the music "at times is funky in a glitchy, herky-jerky sort of way... and at others is dark and meditative". He noted that there were some "traditional" songs on the album, singling out "Sad Sad Movie", which he described as "gorgeous". Koolen considered "Human Love" and "Andrew Was Drowning His Stepfather" to be the "weirdest songs... which can hardly be described as music".

Popke noted that although he saw little connection between the music and the film, Moore "expresses the mood of each scene brilliantly." He found that watching Age 13 with Graveyard Mountain Home as the soundtrack enhanced the film: "Age 13 is not necessarily an enjoyable film to watch... but viewing it with the Chroma Key soundtrack makes an odd experience even odder yet wholly compelling, with a mysterious filmstrip allure that freezes a bygone era." Conversely, Jablonski considered Age 13 as an enhancement to the music. "Listening to the album stand alone for the first time you may not be much impressed," she said. "The music is solemn and somewhat confusing as the tracks run from one to another without much build and in seemingly senseless patterns... Having previously seen or simultaneously watching Age 13 most definitely would help the listener along."