Merlynn Belle＜限定盤＞

テキサスが育て上げたNICO、MARGO GURYANライクなソフトロックを鳴らす男女デュオ、最新作!

名門KILL ROCK STARSから登場したUSはテキサスベースの男女デュオTELE NOVELLA。最新作となる「MERLYNN BELLE」は心地良く研ぎ澄まされたドリーミーソフトロックを封じ込めた快作!!

先行公開曲3曲(WORDS THAT STAY、NEVER、TECHNICOLOR TOWN)に通底するほんわか暖かいムードの演奏とガッチリ芯をとらえた少々パワフルなボーカルの対比がとてつもなく気持ち良い本作。ここまでメロディーラインをキレイに練り上げ、親しみやすく聴こえるアレンジは滅多にお目にかかれないレベル!
YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS、MAGNETIC FIELDSのような剥き出しなポップ感はありますが、そこにMARGO GURYANやNICOの持つドリーミー神秘な雰囲気を持たせた曲調は、ジャケットの柔らかさと不気味さが混じった作風に通じる、脱力や虚無とは違った摩訶不思議な世界を抽出!2021年早速の名盤かも!?MVも尖り過ぎ!

When they first debuted in the front half of the 2010s, Austins Tele Novella were a wild nest of creative ideas competing for space in the mind of frontwoman Natalie Gordon. Categorically, they were loosely tossed into the indie/psych-pop basket, but their unpredictable song structures and errant strains of Tropicalia and vintage country made them hard to place. After the 2016 release of their full-length, House of Souls, the band slimmed down from a quartet to the core duo of Gordon and collaborator Jason Chronis. Judging from the more focused sound they present on their next effort, it was the right move to make. Merlynn Belle is the bands first release for Kill Rock Stars and doubles down on their lonesome honky-tonk elements, which they pair with a peculiar blend of melodic pop shifts and a folk sense that seems centuries rather than decades old. The duo highlights this new direction with their own tongue-in-cheek description as a medieval outsider country band. Its as good a term as any to describe the strange minstrelsy of songs like It Wont Be Long and One Little Pearl, where eccentric psych-folk and spaghetti western collide with theatrical storytelling. Gordons clear lilting voice is well suited to this environment which she and Chronis populate with eerie autoharp trills, vintage organs, tambourines, and vibraphones, all marinated in buckets of reverb. A rich palette of analog atmospherica permeates the record, most deeply on cuts like Crystal Witch and Technicolor Town, which scratch and bump with mysterious textures, adding new layers to the quasi-mystical lyrics. More so than on their full-band debut, the 2021 version of Tele Novella builds a unique world well suited to their talents, then manages to live within it for the duration of this alluring set. ~ Timothy Monger