Melody's Echo Chamber

The name Melody's Echo Chamber doesn't particularly roll off the tongue, but it does a fine job of preparing you for what you're going to hear on their self-titled album. Melody is Melody Prochet, the songwriter/singer behind the band, true, but the record is also coated in layer after layer of sweetly sung melodies — "Echo Chamber" thanks to the homespun weirdness of Tame Impala's Kevin Parker and his effects-drenched, very echoey production. Cute tricks with their name aside, what Prochet and Parker have come up with here is music that follows in the tradition of art pop groups like Broadcast and Stereolab, borrowing their use of sound and structure to give their ultra-catchy songs loads of sonic depth and texture. Every song on Melody's Echo Chamber plays with sound and space, sometimes stripping things back and leaving space between the instruments, sometimes covering everything with a heavy blanket of reverb and fuzz. Parker is a whiz at each approach and his drum sounds are absolutely perfect throughout. Within the shifting arrangements and sounds, there is the consistent sound of Prochet's light and breezy voice. Even though it sometimes feels like she could drift away in a light wind, she anchors the songs with simple and direct vocal melodies that keep the songs out of the realm of mere experiments with sound. Even the trickiest tunes, like the bossa nova-space pop hybrid "Quand Vas Tu Rentrer?" and the uneasy listening "Snowcapped Andes Crash" (on which the duo gets extremely trippy) are tethered by her voice. The combination of Parker's inspired production, Prochet's lovely singing and evocative songwriting, and the perfect balance the duo strikes between pop and art makes Melody's Echo Chamber a rather stunning debut.