Album Review: Drylands

Back in 2011 I reviewed Mel Parsons’ second album Red Grey Blue and enjoyed it – it had some well written songs, was well produced, and was easy to listen to.

When I first popped in her latest album Drylands, I thought she’d taken a bit of a different path to the alt-country that dominated her first album. Far Away was a Florence Welch-esque piece of writing, full sounding with big choruses. I was definitely interested in where the album was going to go after that.

Except then it veered back into familiar territory – this was the Mel Parson’s of Red Grey Blue back again, and to be honest I felt a little disappointed. Sure, the songwriting was still strong, the production is great, and the (lengthy) list of guests on the album should give you some idea as to the overall skill involved in bringing Drylands to life – Anika Moa, Andrew Keoghan, Lisa Tomlins and Ed Zuccollo, just to name a few. But it didn’t feel like much had changed between 2011 and 2015.

A couple of other tracks later in the album (Down So Long, Friend) seem to hint at that new sound from the start of the album, before returning to the same tried and true formula. Fans of her previous work are going to love this, and it’s as good an intro to her sound as her previous work, but I still can’t help feeling like it could have given more.

Red Grey Blue review