Search - Mellow :: Another Mellow Spring

Good, but too familiar...

Chris Lauzon | San Clemente, CA United States | 07/03/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Good solid album, though a little telegraphed at times. If you are at all familiar with Supertramp's "Breakfast in America", anything by ELO, Grandaddy, Stereolab or a ton of other bands I could name, then this record won't blow you away, because the entire package seems a little TOO familiar-- the vocal line from "Another Mellow Winter" is copped directly from the Beatles' "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people"-- at times it seems like they are trying to rewrite every song in the 1967-68 Beatles catalog. But hell, I guess that's a pretty noble pursuit, in the age of Limp Bizkit and Eve 6... A decent package, sounds great on headphones, worth buying."

Good purchase for chillout fans

Danno | NY, NY | 12/23/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this CD for only 5 bucks when Tower Records went under, so there's the chance that my bargain-basement price might make my review a bit on the sunny side. I enjoyed this CD a lot more than I thought I would, being fully prepared not to like it much at all. The songwriters and performers of Mellow clearly aimed to create a style of music that combines the softer elements of Beatles' psychedelia with the lounge/space-age orchestrations of someone like Hugo Montenegro, and for the most part they succeeded quite well. There's plenty of Mellotron used here, which means you hear lots of Strawberry Fields-like flutes and Moody Blues-like violin arrangements. Some of the songs, particularly "Mellow Part 1" could almost pass for Magical Mystery Tour outtakes. Towards the end of the CD, the mixing grows progressively bolder and more contemporary, and the last two versions of the song "Mellow" are particularly enchanting to listen to on headphones. These are the tracks I return to again and again.



As for the downside, there are some truly awful lead vocals on a handful of tracks. Sometimes this is ably disguised by a vocoder, but when they aren't they are some of the worst singing this side of William Hung. Unlike Zero 7, who wisely recruited fantastic outside singers for their projects, Mellow relied on in-house vocals and the non-instrumental songs suffer as a result. Still, the best tracks on this CD do indeed make it worth a purchase.



So, this is a CD that will appeal to you if you like chillout/downtempo arty pop ala Stereophonics, Zero 7, Massive Attack and, yes, Air. If you like this one, I recommend Mellow's soundtrack to the movie "CQ" which is an even better collection of Mellow's material."