The fact that this Melody Fields album has come out on the ever excellent Kommun2 label is already a tick in the positive column for me, and tells me that the musicians behind this album are most likely to be Swedish, and so it proved. Even more exciting is the fact that it was recorded at Parkeringshuset Studio where the likes of Goat and Hills have also recorded. Like these other bands there is a nice blend of Swedish and other musical sounds to create something different, which I think is where my appreciation for this album is taking root.
The album opens with ‘Morning Sun’ which immediately establishes the band’s credentials as putting out music that is upbeat and, well, sunny. There are some lovely melodies here and in some senses you could be sitting on the West Coast of the USA looking out to the Pacific. By the same token you could also be looking out onto the Kattegatt from the West Coast of Sweden with the track’s folk underpinning reminiscent of Träd Gräs och Stenar. Then the sax kicks in and just takes you off into the sunlit uplands… lovely!
If that puts you in a right good mood then you’re going to be positively beaming when ‘Liberty’ kicks in with its smooth edges and lysergic tone. This is just so laid back, but not in any passive or banal way… there’s just something about it that feels very spiritual and deep. Melody Fields have influences, but they are not copyists. After that ‘Run’ steps things up with the guitar coming to the fore more and in between some more chilled out vocal which retains that ray-soaked atmosphere, even though the lyric talks of ‘summer rain’… this is one of a few albums that are bubbling up that I can see are going to be my soundtrack for the summer this year.
‘Rain Man’ keeps us guessing for a few seconds with it’s low key jangly intro before that multi-part harmony drops in and takes us off into a heavenly realm of pastoral melodies, I can already imagine me staring out at the same Kattegatt on my holidays in Denmark later this year… I’m sure the ‘Rain Man’ will make an appearance at some point, but with this on I won’t care. From: https://fragmentedflaneur.com/2018/03/27/album-review-melody-fields-by-melody-fields/
