Album – Slumberland – Paul Melancon

Posted by admin on October 27th, 2005

I never fail to be amazed by the amount of talent out there, not getting the exposure they deserve. Paul Melançon is a case in point. With two solo albums and one album under the name The Arts and Sciences, he certainly has a healthy catalogue of material to draw from. I first became aware of Paul on the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast. Dave Slusher covered Paul in a lengthy 2 part podcast, which managed to get me quite excited. So ecited in fact that I picked up all 3 of Pauls albums.

If you were to draw comparisons between other artists, I suppose the closest I could come up with, would be Crowded House. Paul has such an expressive quality to his lyrics and when that’s fused to his music, you have a real winning combination. I think the song that really smacked me in the face and got me to sit up and listen is Guy Fawkes day on the Slumberland (2000) album. This is one of those rare infections pop songs that sucker punches you in the opening bars and doesn’t release you until the end. Another standout track on the album is 1985 by the Get-Go’s, which is another example of a well crafted pop song.

Camera Obscura (2002) continues the tradition of well crafted pop songs, especially with the track Jeff Lynne, but the album itself has much darker overtones. This is reflected not only in the music, but also in the lyrics. Although darker, Paul’s voice is still very expressive, even where the lyrics are dark. Things take an even grayer turn with The Arts and Sciences Hopeful Monsters(2005) album. Don’t be mistaken though, this is still a very fine album, but it’s a much more mature album, written by someone who would at first appear to be troubled, but this only goes to make the album all the more special.

Conclusion : I’m so glad I bought all 3 albums at once, as I can imagine being put off by one of the albums if bought individually. With all 3 albums, this is indeed an excellent collection of well crafted pop, by someone who I would at least put up in the same ranks as Neil Finn of Crowded House. There’s an excellent cover of The Beatles Girl available on the website and also Guy Fawkes Day (linked above) and a few other songs from the other albums. I strongly suggest you pick up all 3 albums and make your collection all the more complete.

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