Melody’s Echo Chamber – ‘Unclouded’ album review: Poise over passion
On their fourth studio album, Melody’s Echo Chamber, the brainchild of French musician Melody Prochet, finally finds the equation for equilibrium. Unfortunately, the thing about stasis is that, after a while, everything begins to feel eerily similar.
The Skinny: In the lead-up to the album, Prochet teased fans with a new thematic interest that promised to differentiate from her usual blend of neo-psychedelia and surreal dream-pop.
“I used to feel nostalgic growing into adulthood, but now that I understand that concept of impermanence, I don’t take it as personally anymore,” she said of her shift in perspective. On Unclouded, Melody’s Echo Chamber compromises passion and play for poise and composure with varying results.
The album opens as it means to go on, with a plodding bassline, ethereal, shimmering vocals, and soaring strings. It’s upheld by solid performances from her team of impressive collaborators, from the Heliocentrics’ Malcolm Catto to co-producer and composer Sven Wunder. It persists, and then persists, and then persists some more.
In the softer moments, such as ‘Broken Roses’ or the titular track ‘Unclouded’, the album lands upon a delicate homeostasis. For all of Prochet’s efforts to find a universal presence in the present, the lilting riffs and graceful ambience get closest. Fourth class ‘Eyes Closed’ also does a great job at marrying the natural chemistry between each instrument.
Surprisingly, the album’s real stand-out is the varied, inspired drumming. An unusual and welcome punctuation to her otherwise sleepy dream-pop, the jazz-inflected percussion manages to shake things up where the other instrumentals, or the gauzy vocals, might otherwise not quite succeed.
The Verdict: With this project, the clue is in the title. Unclouded offers us a vast expanse of the same thing: sweet, harmless dream-pop. There’s no doubt that Prochet is an incredible talent with a stunning discography, but this latest offering plates up titillations that trundle on innocuously, leaving nothing much to hold onto when all is said and done.
Defining track: ‘Eyes Closed’
Release Date: December 5th, 2025 | Producer: Sven Wunder | Label: Domino
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