From the great, roaring rumble of opening number ‘Vanity’ to the trembling shaker that playfully closes out the final track, Only Count The Sunny Hours is as impetuous and childlike a record as the name Hello Moon suggests.
In fact, the twee tinkles on this 12-tracker are so sweet and doe-eyed, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the Dublin foursome’s moniker is a play on the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon. Alan Galvin’s muffled male vocal is full of mischief and there’s even a chiming, Disney-appropriate 30-second interlude between tracks two and four.
The jerky, whirring ‘Three More Inches’ is the catchiest tune in the bunch, but giddy folk ditty ‘What’s The Use Of Falling In Love?’ and the rocky, vintage-sounding ‘New Day’ make for good competition.
Recording for this album was completed on New Year’s Day and a sense of expectation is palpable on every single track. It’s not that Hello Moon don’t get blue like the rest of us, but when they do, they have an infinitely chirpier way of expressing it.

That said, there’s little for a hardened criminal or moustache-twirling villain on Only Count The Sunny Hours, except perhaps the occasional bitter lyric like “Young love passes faster than elastic fades away”. For the most part, though, this is an exercise in rolling around in a meadow with the Andrex puppies, sporting tie-dyed hair. In other words, if you can have a high threshold for whimsy, Only Count The Sunny Hours is a precious little album, with minimal ego – and maximum impact.