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Melys | Suikerspin

Strong melodies with a mediocre band sound.
CD, Tranformed Dreams/Konkurrent

Tekst: Wilko van Iperen

Publicatiedatum: 04 april 2002

'Chinese Whispers' topped last year's Festive Fifty, the 50 favourite tracks of John Peel's listeners of the past twelve months. The song also features on 'Suikerspin' - Dutch for candyfloss ? released on the Amsterdam-based label Transformed Dreams. 'Suikerspin' is "a collection of old and new tracks" by this four-piece from Wales. Melys' distinctive sound comes from the beautiful, elfish voice of singer Andrea Parker, who sounds somewhat like Portishead's Beth Gibbons. By fits and starts, the sound of Melys recalls Echobelly, the Britpop formation of the early Nineties. Most of the songs on 'Suikerspin' contain, to say the least, strong melodies and sometimes even irresistible ones, like 'You Should Have Been There' and, of course, that of the number one spot of the Festive Fifty, although almost all of the melodies are a bit too plain. Musically, though, this is as boring as it could get. The songs lack power, and the filling-in of the compositions is without dare, even unadventurous. Having electronic bleeps, samples, and technobeat intros doesn't make an album exciting, especially when the electronic additives sound passé. The synthesizers that fill the background most of the time are full of pathos. Melys just sound outdated. Where the likes of, for example, Pulp pull it off almost time after time, Melys fail to excite because this is nothing out of the ordinary. The days of Britpop are long gone, and even if that weren?t the case - like Echobelly and Catatonia back then - Melys would belong to the second-grade team of the Britpop league. Not a turn-on at all, as the Festive Fifty would lead you to expect. They'd better let number two rock the top spot.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/melys/suikerspin/1438/
Meer Melys op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/melys