The Mellons

Weaving sunshine and psych in a way that’s decidedly out of fashion for 2022, but doing it with such conviction and clarity that listener’s can’t help but be charmed, the new album from The Mellons cascades out of the speakers as a dose of cool relief. Chucking aside the obvious Beach Boys touchstones, the band digs deeper into the world of baroque psychedelia in a way that hasn’t really been embraced since the height of the Elephant 6. Like members of the 90’s collective, The Mellons stack dayglo harmonies, orchestral arrangements, and an obsession with the bittersweet corners of ‘60s songwriting. The band even goes so far as to paste on a packaging of light concept to the album, running it through with interludes and introductions that feel like winking nods to Small Faces and The Pretty Things’ own oddities Ogden’s and Parachute.

Musically, though, the band swerves closer to the characters from the ‘60s that lolled in sunbeams with wistful looks and heavy sighs. As the dewy depths of Introducing… unfurl I can’t help but be reminded of the soft focus swoons of Yellow Balloon and the psych-pop world of Curt Boettcher (The Millennium, Sagittarius) as often as more obvious touchstones like The Turtles and ELO, who both peek out behind the gauzy glare. From The Association’s underusng gem Birthday to Billy Nicholls’ Love Songs, it feels like the band may have been on more than a few internet deep dives before settling on a sound. Though, none of the parsing of the past matters if the band can’t pull off the ambitious task of recreating the larger than life sounds that make their muse. The Utah collective come through in that department, taking the listener deep into a contained psych-pop wonderland that wraps around with sun-dappled sweetness. Some might shy away from the saccharine sheen of something this earnest, but I’m completely drawn into the good time gravity of Introducing…