Review Summary: “The world has turned, and left me here, so I'll kill you, my beautiful dear”
Mike Coulter thought this review was well written
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me set the record straight; mainstream grunge and alternative rock was becoming an increasingly creatively bankrupt genre (for the most part) from 1995 onwards. And as a result, people began to see grunge and alternative metal as an oversaturated, angsty and cliche music genre that felt, well, feeble. By 1996-1997, releases from previously well-selling acts had disappointing sales as pop music and/or other softer (or much harder) rock music acts took over. Unfortunately, when the Ship of Grunge sank in 1996, it also took the lives of some extremely good acts with it, such as Hum and Paw; and amongst those lost was a band called Lifter, who released one album that year before disappearing from the face of the earth and leaving behind a hidden gem of an album.
Melinda (Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt) is the audible manifestation of romantic breakups and disillusionment with life, counting in all the emotions one can feel; sadness, anger, hatred, spitefulness, or just plain disappointment and sorrow. With vocalist/guitarist Mike Coulter’s semi-autobiographical lyrics, a semi-cryptic picture is painted; you can feel a certain way about what he’s saying, but it is impossible to understand everything. Contrary to the album’s misleading title, Coulter is hurt and audibly/visibly bleeding his heart out; there’s no sentimentality or happiness to be found here, musically or lyrically, and his vocal execution. In “Something Borrowed”, he is writing a letter to his ex-partner, wondering how they’ve been, and promising to write back. But the problem with Coulter is… well, he’s a mess and completely strung out, their only holidays were to Rehab, his house has trash all over the stairs, and they’re both going to be evicted in a month. In the end though, he has to smile it off, and “Be the bright boy/with bright eyes”. (“Yardcow”). He knows they’re doing better off without him, but Coulter can’t help but feel he’s going to fade away from their memories; in a crackling, fragile voice, he weeps, “Slide in/slide down/slide out”. Coulter doesn’t need to sing something like “I didn’t mean to treat you so bad, But I did it anyway” (Candlebox lyric) to elicit sympathy for him; he knows he is, and has ***ed up, and all he is able to do is harbour regret. While Coulter’s motives appear in good faith, he is also shown to be desperate to get out of his personal hell of his self-destructive behaviour and his frustration with what’s happened sometimes comes out as envy, jealousy or, frankly, criminal (such as in Big & Tall, where he bemoans how “vacant” his ex used to be, and ominously promising to “shoot you (them) down”), and sometimes borderline uncomfortable, “I'm in my car/And I see your house/And a gallon of gas/And a book of matches now” delivered with such enthusiasm, complete with a “Hey, hey, hey, hey” chorus chant. And his actions only get worse from here on throughout the album; the most unsettling song on
Melinda is “Monkee”, track 9, which is basically a disarming stalker-esque fantasy, complete with a violin; the song’s chorus, “I’d walk you home/if I knew you when/you were all alone/I'd be your friend somehow” is frankly the most passive-aggressive/terrifying part of this album. And then by track 10 he has literal murderous intent. But having developed that sympathy with him at the beginning of the album, is Coulter just lonely, or does he need to be locked up in a cell?
Tying together all of this chaos and disorder is the music. It’s hard to describe the nature of
Melinda’s music. You would probably expect a crazy angry metal record judging by the lyrics, but instead,
Melinda seems to balance the aggression scales surprisingly well.
Melinda doesn’t feel simple, when played soft loud or hard; it’s part Weezer, part Toadies, and complete with dissonance, distortion, psychedelia-hard rock riffs a-la Jane’s Addiction. This unusual combination helps put the album in a separate-enough category of its own outside of the cliche grunge. That alone, however isn’t what makes the album strong; what is easily the album’s strength is that the production and sound isn’t listener-oppressive like Alice In Chain’s self-titled record or too weak/soft/sentimental like (some moments on) Adore by the Smashing Pumpkins* in its portrayal of sadness/sentimentality- rather,
Melinda one-ups both of these by combining both the unusual musicianship with depressing subject matters lows while not compromising the overall accessibility, hosting singalong choruses for songs such as “Headshot” and “402”; the latter which is the ultimate twenties-life crisis anthem, and one of the album’s strongest songs. Emotion-provoking delivery is what ultimately drives this album. There are two songs that aren’t as moving and feel “lame-duck”, which are “Beach” and “Shutout”, but the negative effect they have is largely negligible to the overall quality of the album. The album’s centrepiece, “The Rich, Dark, Sultry Red of Hate”, is easily the most realised of this combination; it starts off loose and quiet, before exploding into a vice-grip of distortion, palm muting, with splices of melody, feedback heavy chorus sections and a simple but paralysing solo before, before gently letting you go at the end with a dramatic finale;
“Hate - Will Be My Pillow”
“Alone - Will be My Daughter”
“Come Back - Will Be My Mantra”
“Stay Away - Will Be My Saving Grace”
“A New One… Will Put Me To Sleep.”
But ultimately, despite what Coulter tries to do throughout the album, he is left defeated. On the final track “Shine”, there’s no spite in his voice, but rather just cries for help in the verses; “How long, how long?/See you shine/I'll see you smile When you shine” almost feels suicidal, as feels more so with the upbeat-sounding outro. And just like that, with a final strum of the guitar, the album ends, nicely compacted into a 44 minute compact disc- and leaving you exhausted. This isn’t your typical grunge or “one-and-done” record;
Melinda is so blue, it’s practically suffocating to hear, and hard to ignore once you’ve heard the entire thing through. You don’t “enjoy” this record- rather, you connect with it. This is Weezer for psychopaths, and I've yet to hear it replicated.
4/5
—--------------------------
Listen to the album here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=monlOMdGubc&t=243s
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*this one is a stretch, but it’s the closest I could think of, besides
“Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” by Alanis Morrisete. Also I don’t mean post-grunge
Thank you again for this. And if you're interested a made a record a few years. Not with any of the Lifter guys . It's a very different beast. It's no Melinda but you might like some of it. Here's a spotify link but I suspect it's up there on most music platforms.
