Mellodrone
Box
Label: 3 Records/Red Ink
Available: April 4

Buy Melldrone’s debut album. I don’t ever start a review with those words because it’s tacky, for starters. But I’ve always have a hard time writing about albums and artists that I really really love, and lately I’ve been getting a fair amount of really good new music in the mail. And because I listen to these good ones nonstop, I don’t get through my other reviews. So in the interest of moving on, I have this to say - Buy it.

Box features 13 tracks that range from rich dancey space/synth pop to moody Luna grooves. If you like The Faint, newer Filter, Radiohead and/or Crash Test Dummies, you’ll like this band. If you like David Lynch movie soundtracks by Angelo Badalementi like me (Lost Highway, Fire Walk with Me), you’ll love it.

Jonathan Bates, the group’s singer, principal writer and guitar virtuoso, has an album here with such a vast range of emotions, it’s sometimes hard to tell if the lyrics are as serious as the tunes, and that’s okay.

With surprisingly welcomed background vocals - that add to the sound rather than detract – and a pop sensibility lacking in most of today’s new music, Mellodrone is going to be huge.

And you’ll have heard it here first. So buy it. Go!

Box is available in digital retailers now. Physical copies will be available April 4. If you pre-order in the Filter Store, you get a bonus, exclusive 12″. Link.