Melting. A Shoreline Dream

Melting comes with two musical flavours. One is a tranquil sea that I can float on, caressed by the lapping water ever so lightly. Or it comes in the form of huge waves, washing over me trying to pummel me into the sand on the bottom and tear my limps apart from the shear force before releasing me and allow me to return to the surface to breath again. In other words a lot happens on Melting.

A Shoreline Dream returns to these pages after the single 'Seek To Hide' was reviewed a while back in our rather new single section. The band consists of Ryan Policky, a multi instrumentalist and Erik Jeffreys, guitar and backing vocals. Chase Dobson contributes keyboards to the album. Melting is the band's first album release since 2014 when 'The Silent Sunrise' saw the light of day. Recent political events inspired the band from Barnum, Colorado to work on and finalize a new album.

The result is a dark album, in line with the times, that are most likely even darker than when written and recorded. The sound is not always clear, almost a bit muddled. Every once in a while a sound is allowed to escape for a short while. Play the album a bit louder though and the sound becomes clearer. A clear signal to play the album loudly.

It surprised me to read this is an American band. Where the sound is concerned I hear mostly influences from U.K. bands of the 80s, early 90s. Shoegazers is what I'm thinking of primarily. Do not expect loads of happiness in other words. There may be U.S. bands of the time involved. In that case I'm simply not familiar with them.

Promo Photo: Ryan Policky

Another influence I detect is more surprising. A few days ago I reviewed the latest Motorpsycho called 'The All Is One' and several times the band comes to mind while listening to Melting. Not in the overall sound, but listen e.g. to 'The Tempting Flood' and 'Seek To Hide' and notice the monumental use of the bass in the latter song. As if Bent Saether delivered a killer bass part to A Shoreline Dream, making the song as monumental as 'The All Is One' is.

The mix between monumentality and the more subtle interludes, just listen to 'Always That Reason', is what makes Melting a gratifying album. There's never too much of a good thing either way. A Shoreline Dream presents a well-balanced album where deep drums and bass provide the foundation for layers of guitars and synths to wash over the listener in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From the acoustic guitar in 'Downstairs Sundays' to that massive bass in 'Seek To Hide', it all comes by, surprising the listener along the way. Intriguing and good Melting is.

Wo.

You can listen to and order Melting here:

https://ashorelinedream.bandcamp.com/album/melting


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g