Melody's Echo Chamber: Unclouded

"French multi-instrumentalist Melody Prochet makes the kind of reliably atmospheric music that can turn even the most everyday moment into a scene from a Sofia Coppola or Xavier Dolan movie about doomed youth. Melody's Echo Chamber glints like gossamer: cinematic dream-rock soundscapes, muted explosions of fuzzed-out bass, and coiled percussion wrapped in reverberant, jangling guitar. Her sepia-toned shimmer gets even dreamier on Unclouded, Prochet's fourth album-fifth, if we count the "lost" album (and we should)."

"The pretty chords and arpeggios Prochet claimed to have tired of before writing the self-titled record that put her on the map dominate Unclouded. The downtempo march at the heart of "Memory's Underground" explodes into a storm of strings and reverb. The El Michels Affair-assisted "Daisy" is bottled sunshine by way of plucked electric guitar and a repetitive drum line you can hear in almost every song on the record."

Melody Prochet creates shimmering, cinematic dream-pop on Unclouded, using diaphanous pop-rock psychedelia, reverb-drenched guitars, fuzzed bass, and coiled percussion. The album leans on pretty chords and arpeggios, downtempo marches, and string storms that swell around restrained, wispy vocals. Songs often favor English lyrics, though French-language tracks previously added grandeur and authority. Collaborations, like with The El Michels Affair on "Daisy," supply sunlit textures and plucked guitar lines. The overall sound is beautiful and atmospheric but sometimes unfocused, with songs that blend into one another and few truly distinctive, standalone singles.

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