Earlier this week, actor, director, and Saturday Night Live alum Kyle Mooney teased the release of a new project in an Instagram video. Speaking in the nervous tone of a celebrity about to issue a public apology or reveal a scary health diagnosis, Mooney explained that “the last couple years have been pretty crazy,” and that, as a result, he’s decided to put out a new project that divides his fan base. “It’s who I am, it’s the real me, and I want to be okay with showing this side of myself and not caring what people might think or they might say,” he said.
That project, it turns out, is a full music album titled The Real Me, released March 21 on the legendary Stones Throw Records (!), and it does indeed shed a revealing light on the previously opaque public figure. For example, it would have been impossible to know prior to this that Mooney, now going by Kyle M, is into musical genres as diverse as “rock and roll, country, dance, and R&B.” That’s according to his official artist biography on Spotify, which also notes, “His debut album, The Real Me, is considered incredibly creative and poetic.”
The poetry and creativity are apparent from the album’s introductory track, in which Kyle M tees up what listeners are about to hear by playing both sides of a conversation:
“Hey, what’s going here?”
“Well, we’re going on a journey.”
“We’re going on a journey? What do you mean?”
“We’re going inside.”
“Inside where?”
“We’re going inside of … you.”
“Oh.”
And oh the places that journey takes us — from Kyle M’s ’50s-style ode to his “Blue Car” that will make you want to do the twist like Chubby Checker, to his four-on-the-floor banger “I Gotta Dance Tonight,” about how movement can liberate us from the pressures of capitalism. It is quite a trip. “The nine-to-five has got me stressed / Typing away in my shirt and vest,” he croons on the latter. “Boss is a jerk, always yells at me / I need a break from all the monotony / Where can I go to let it all out? / I need a way to scream and shout / Got no idea what I’m looking for / But I think I can find it on the dance floor.”
There will be a temptation among Mooney fans not to take this project as a serious artistic effort. After all, the comedian has a long reputation of playing comedic bits extremely straight without winking, and this project feels apiece with that. To those people, Mooney offers a rejoinder on the album’s closing track, “The Real Me,” sung over campfire guitar strums: “I know I come off as a clown / But I’m telling you now / There’s a real me deep down.”
It only took 18 years in the public light, but Mooney finally feels comfortable sharing that “real” version of himself now, and we applaud his courage and vulnerability.
