Album Review: 'Bon Voyage' by Melody's Echo Chamber

(Review published in ET)

The most eclectic range of genres, instrumental sounds, vocal effects, and influences I’ve ever heard in a single 33-minute album. Melody Prochet has created a truly engaging masterpiece.

French singer-songwriter Melody Prochet has recently released her sophomore album under the name Melody’s Echo Chamber called Bon Voyage. The album boasts a creative mixture of sounds ranging from folk-like instruments and French vocals to pitchy screams, auto-tune, and psychedelic synths. Her songs focus on the psych-rock genre while occasionally going off on tangents, exploring dimensions with fluttering flute solos, spoken word passages, and ‘70s funk influenced breakdowns. Prochet’s album has been long awaited by her fans but had to be postponed due to a tragic accident in June 2017. This album marks a strong comeback from Prochet, an enigmatic and empowered woman exploring various emotions through a wild mix of songs.

If you have a similar taste in music to me, you’ve probably heard Melody’s Echo Chamber through the recommendations Spotify makes when you run out of songs to listen to in your playlist. If you haven’t heard it, the sounds are psychedelic, dreamy, progressive, and even a little folk. Melody Prochet’s voice is angelic, acidic, and constantly evolving.

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, Prochet’s ex-boyfriend, has some heavy influences on this album. Some of the drumming, synthesisers, and audio effects on Bon Voyage seem to come straight out of Currents’ playbook, the third album to come from Parker’s collection. Other influences I picked up were The Avalanches, Radiohead, and a lot of old French composers and classical musicians.

The songs on this album transition between being sung in French, Swedish, and English, as well as singing, spoken word, auto-tune, and straight up screaming. Perth boy Nick Allbrook, lead singer of Pond and formerly a member of Tame Impala, appears in the fifth track ‘Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige’ in a spoken-word passage. The track title translates to ‘When The Tears Of An Angel Make The Snow Dance’ which is quite a contrast to Allbrook’s humorous and grotesque lyrics in the song: “I want to shit all over myself when I die.” The chorus is sung in French, the rest in English, and is an all round dynamic indie-jam filled with layered strings, sporadic drum fills, and psychedelic synths.

Other memorable songs from Bon Voyage are ‘Desert Horse’ and ‘Visions of Someone Special, On a Wall of Reflections’. ‘Desert Horse’ is a synth-filled trip through a mirage; it’s heavy, screechy and auto-tuned. The song floats between French and English lyrics, with one Swedish line. Chunky bass and wispy, falsetto vocals make up the majority of the song, with the occasional synth layered over the top. One of Prochet’s catchiest lines, ‘So much blood. On my hands. And not much left to destroy. I know I am better alone’, is juxtaposed with an auto-tune behind the gloomy vocals, interrupting her vulnerable moment.

‘Visions of Someone Special, On a Wall of Reflections’ contains wavy guitar riffs, jazzy drums, and plucky and harmonious strings. The lyrics are almost entirely in French, until the final lines where she sings “visions of someone special, on a wall of reflections” layered in repetition until the song fades out. This track has a Middle-eastern feel to it, with eerie violin, choir-like synths, and sweeping harp sounds. This is a track I can picture in a Wes Anderson movie soundtrack, mostly because it’s French, quirky, and also a bit classical.

Melody Prochet’s second album Bon Voyage does not disappoint. Despite its short run time, this album manages to entice its audience through an exploration of psychedelic tones and vocal performances, pushing the boundaries of traditional song writing.

If I were to give this album a rating, I’d give it an 8 out of 10.