On “Right Across The USA,” Olivier Cornu, the Lausanne-based musician behind Moon Construction Kit, turns nostalgia into something restless. Out August 21, the new single is built for the open road: driving guitars, stacked vocal harmonies and a bright power-pop pulse that reaches for the communal rush of a summer festival without abandoning its melancholy center.
The song’s cleverest move is the tension between its surface and its subject. Cornu describes it as a track about connection and separation, with distance feeding a longing for the American culture he grew up on. That gives the song more weight than its sunny presentation initially suggests. The fantasy of crossing the USA becomes less about geography than the emotional distance between an imagined past and the present.
Musically, Cornu leans into classic pop architecture rather than disguising his influences. The earworm quality is immediate, while the layered harmonies give the track a distinctly retro glow. There are recognizable echoes of power-pop and California pop, but “Right Across The USA” does not come across as a museum piece. Its appeal comes from how comfortably Cornu folds those references into his own psychedelic-indie framework.
Guy Britton’s punchy mix keeps the track moving, although the song’s commitment to brightness occasionally leaves its more reflective ideas fighting for space. The production could afford to let some of the introspection breathe. A little more contrast between the exuberant instrumental surface and the underlying loneliness might make the emotional payoff sharper.
Still, the straightforwardness is part of the point. Cornu is not trying to dismantle pop nostalgia; he is testing what happens when you inhabit it honestly. “Right Across The USA” understands that nostalgia is rarely just happiness for what was. It is also an awareness of what cannot be recovered. By turning that contradiction into a fast, melodic rush, Moon Construction Kit makes the familiar feel surprisingly personal.
Featured Image: Artist Supplied
