published: 22 /
2 /
2019
Label:
WIAWYA
Format: CD
Welcome dose of upbeat jangle pop on the first full album from singer-songwriter Michael Wood’s project Whoa Melodic
Review
Whoa Melodic is the solo project - and anagram - of London singer-songwriter Michael Wood. He can usually be found working with artists like Singing Adams/Steven Adams & the French Drops and power pop darlings the Hayman Kupa band (with Darren Hayman of Hefner and Emma Kupa of Standard Fare/Mammoth Penguins). Those recordings, and Wood’s previous Whoa Melodic singles, are just a teaser for the catchy, positive pop on Whoa Melodic’s ten tracks.
The album was recorded in Wood’s home studio but sounds remarkably polished. It definitely doesn’t sound like it was created in the cupboard under the stairs in his house, which it was. Let this fact be a lesson to defiantly lo-fi bands everywhere.
The album’s press release compares Wood to Elliott Smith, which still has me scratching my head. I don’t see it, myself. Many of the songs are heavily reminiscent of the Lemonheads, especially opening track 'I Will Never Let You Down', which Wood described as a “Psychedelic Furs style 80s indie jangle pop song,” as well as Paul McCartney. There is a McCartney-like determined optimism on the album, despite obvious personal struggles and a motif of self-doubt. “The harshest critic was in my head,” Wood sings on 'To See You Again'. There are piano and guitar riffs on 'Totally Mad' that sound like outtakes from 'McCartney I', the line “The saddest tale that you’ve ever heard/I was Love Me Do, now I’m Free as a Bird” ('The Night Comes'), and the simple but lovely instrumental 'Spring Forward Fall Back' even has 'Blackbird' style birdsong at the end.
'Disappointed Pessimist' is jaunty 60's pop with a swirling psychedelic organ line and fun but not overly cute lyrics. That song and a few others bear a minor resemblance to early 00's American band the Pieces, a group Wood is not likely to have encountered, and Teenage Fanclub.
“I kind of lost faith in myself at some point, especially creatively, and getting this album was a struggle in that sense,” Wood says. Whatever struggles he has experienced are somewhat defused by self-deprecating humour, melodies, and word play: “When I say dire straits, I don’t mean the band.” He ends the album with a good piece of advice for anyone having mental health challenges and other personal difficulties: 'Ring Your Friends', which he reminds us is “what people did before the internet.”
Track Listing:-
1
I Will Never Let You Down
2
Hit Me Where It Hurts
3
To See You Again
4
Totally Mad
5
Spring Forward Fall Back
6
The Night Comes
7
Disappointed Pessimist
8
Waste Time
9
Hopeless And Lonely
10
Ring Your Friends