The West Coast seems to have an air of a free spirit that allows songwriters to write various types of music there. About two years ago, I started listening to several California pop bands including Phantom Planet (pre-garage-band-wannabe stage), Rooney, the Like, the Waking Hours, Everybody Else, and Rilo Kiley for their great pop sensibilities. Melée is a pop band from Orange County and I hoped that they would be up to par with their peers. They played with a couple of the bands I mentioned before, so I assumed that some influence was transferred in some way. I was wrong; the pop is there, but the sensibilities are a bit off.
Think Something Corporate minus the whiny voice and dense lyrics for a sound close to M l e s. They are able to use keyboards to their advantage to fabricate catchy songs. In general, minimalist melodies are underrated, because they may sound like they were the first melodies that entered the songwriter s mind. However, simplistic melodies may be the most appropriate for particular songs. On Melée s debut Everyday Behavior, simple melodies are their strength.
Jarring guitars begin a fast-paced attempt at a heavier sound in "Got It All." Cron strains his voice and my ears with his raucous barking alongside the flurry of guitar notes. Luckily, the next track, "New Day," verifies that Melée have not abandoned their pop roots. The change between tracks is abrupt from the spiteful lyrics of "chasing a lie til the true things die/you re a marching soldier through a blind man's eye" to the cheery lyrics of "morning sunshine/come light my life like you said you can."
"The War" and "Perfect Mess" have catching simple choruses. I m usually peeved when a band repeats a line in the chorus more than once, because it s as if they re too lazy to think of a better line. Melée is an exception; they repeat the chorus twice in "The War," singing, "yeah, your war is won" six times, but the melody conceals this repetition pretty smoothly. The drums and suspension in "Perfect Mess" anticipate an incendiary chorus, but it sounds too light; the chorus should be more explosive, even though it's still rather infectious.
"Mestizos Love Song" and "Routines" on the Against the Tide EP were re-recorded for the album, but that does not mean it was for the better. The parts can be heard more clearly, but the clarity only takes away from the charming m lange of instruments in which only the prominent instruments of the moment stood out on the EP recordings. The prelude into "Routines" is a tacky smooth jazz number that should've been cut out.
What would a pop album be without a tear-jerking ballad? The candidates are "Sleeping Through Autumn" and "Pennsylvania," but both of them don t have a sweet enough melody to be true heart-clenching ballads. Out of the two "Sleeping Through Autumn" is the closest with the weeping violin in the background. To conclude the album after the slow "Pennsylvania" there s a fun up-tempo hidden track. It s almost worth fast-forwarding a couple of minutes to the untitled track.
I don t know what to say besides that this is an okay album, because it is really just an okay album. There are a couple of catchy songs, but there are also some bad ones. Nonetheless, I don t feel like I wasted my money; 5% of the suggested retail list price is going towards the Orangewood Pals Program, a "group of young professionals who have joined together to fight child abuse and neglect in Orange County." If you want to increase the M's and pop records in your album collection while supporting a good cause, Melée s Everyday Behavior is your winner.
