The title don’t lie, folks.  From now on Tuesday is Major Label Casualty Day! *Trumpets.wav*  I decided to incorporate this new weekly feature into our hectic posting schedule after discovering Orange County band Melee had posted 3 new songs on their Myspace.  Since I own their poppy debut album Everyday Behavior and found it to be somewhat refreshing for a SubCity Records release, I thought “What the doobie, I’ll peep my ears to these new music songs.”

Astonishingly, instead of the crisp melodies and warm vocals I was expecting, I found a lightweight, watered down shell of what used to be Melee.  Hold on though, Speed Racer.  The fact that these songs are from their Warner Brothers debut album has nothing to do with this.  I’m sure they’ve just ’matured’ since Everday Behavior was released in 2004 and that when they heard they were working with Major Label Producer A and Major Label Producer B they were thrilled to try out and explore some new sonic landscapes.  Right?  I bet that’s what really happened.

The result is ‘Frequently Baby’ which contains all the faux-yells and piano stomping one could ask for in a song.  You can tell the band had a lot of fun on that one, what with all the spontaneous shouting from lead singer Chris Cron.  And what about ‘Built to Last’?  This song reminds me of several tracks on their last record, minus all the scary loud guitar noises.  These first two tracks may be gold, but the third track, ‘Can’t Hold On’, is the best example of the band’s maturation.  Besides earning the distinction of being the slowest song they have ever written, the lyrics and vocal delivery on the track give James Blunt a run for his money.  I’m talking James “I was in the military” Blunt.  The words are just so strong and so honest, and I’m sure more than 1 fifteen year old girl will identify with them.  I know I did!

So there, you’ve heard my side of it.  Now go listen to these songs while I take a shower and clean myself of my jaded blogger smell.

http://www.myspace.com/meleerocks

P.S:  Before I let you go, here is the video for Melee’s ‘The War’, from their debut album Everyday Behavior.  I used to be all about this song back in the day.

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