Quietly late last year Walter Meego self-released their latest album called Wondervalley. The new album finds the band toning back some of the electronic elements of their sound and focusing more on some more full band sounds in many of the songs. It comes off as a nice, fresh turn for the band after their last album, which was heavily electro-pop flavored kinds of jams. While the last album worked really well, this really shows some versatility and creativity from the band by not just churning out some electro-pop songs just like the last record, and really trying to find some new directions and some new sounds.
The electronic aspects of music are still very much present in every song on the album, they are just not the driving force behind the songs as much. The electronic elements have become more of a co-pilot here, and are played off of some great live drum sounds and a lot more full band guitar, bass, drums kinds of set ups. The electronic elements are mixed into fairly straightforward and strong indie-rock songs with a bit of a pop leaning to them. The opening track “Magic Eye” is a perfect example of blending some synthetic elements with a very full and realized rock band sound. It ultimately results in some great songs that are paced really well for the band, and probably some more weight and heft behind some of their songs than on the previous record.
The mixing of more live elements with the synthetic ones gives the record a more real world feel, which is nice. The mixing and blending of elements is not unlike what we have seen from a lot of artists recently, and is somewhat similar to what we have seen from MGMT, taking some more conventional elements and running certain parts of them through synths and electronics to get some more spacy and different kinds of sounds. Clearly the intention here is different than MGMT, but the electronic/physical blending here is in a similar vein, and it works really well.
In eschewing some of the more electro elements of its predecessor has also brought in some more, dare I say, soulful sounds and songs in here. The second track “Starlight”, “Here I Am” and especially “Got Me Goin” showcase the more vocally developed side of the band. Here the vocals take more center stage and play in tandem with the backing tracks more, whereas before the band maybe blew out the vocals via the backing tracks from time to time. “Time Machine” is another kind of spaced out, slow down electro-folk jam that borders on 70s sunshine and psychedelia influences. It is another nice little difference in this album.
Certainly this new album from the band is really not quite like what they had done on the last album, but they really managed to change a lot of their approach to the songs and the music and keep a really strong feel throughout. The hooks and phrases throughout the album are still rock solid, as they have always been for this band, they are just getting kind of repurposed and redirected a little bit, and that keeps this album sounding really fresh.
“Magic Eye” by Walter Meego from Wondervalley
