Meltheads - Decent Sex - Flyctory.com

Meltheads - Decent Sex

3.8

Rating

3.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Nice post punk album with different songs

Flyctory.com Cons

Sometimes too experimental

One of the music releases I feature on Friday 9th February 2024 is Decent Sex, the debut album by the Belgian artists Meltheads. After the band has already received some love and support in their come country and neighboring Netherlands, the long play release is aiming to attract a wider audience as well. I had a listen.

Meltheads – About The Artists

Meltheads are a Belgian garage and post punk band. They have been founded in 2018. Some band members already know from school times, which they attended in Antwerp. The lineup consists of singer and guitarist Sietse Willems, guitarist Yunas de Proost, bassist Tim Penseart and Simon de Geus on the drums. The press kit describes Willems as a mixture of Van Morrison, Robert Plant and Iggy Pop. In 2019, the band released their debut single Disco Of L’Amore. The 2022 single Naief has been released as an EP in different version as well.

Meltheads – Decent Sex – Track by Track

The eleven song album lasts 30 minutes.

1. Decent Sex

The album is opening with the title track. The listener is right inside the music of the Meltheads, who present a fast, typical post-punk song. The more, the slow and melancholic bridge is slowing down that energy a bit too much.

2. Night Gym

Five of the eleven track of the album have already been released as singles. Night Gym is the first of them. The song perfectly underlines that the Belgians are more than just a post-punk band. The song is coming with nice hooks, but also surprising tempo changes. Especially towards the end of Night Gym, you also feel garage and grunge vibes.

3. Vegan Leather Boots

This 2:24 minute long song is not the most complex one in regards of the lyrics. To me, it is pushing too hard. Bad luck, as the focus on toxic manhood, which leads to the final phrase Meat makes a murderer could draw more attention. The song becomes better towards its end – let’s hope that not too many listeners have opted for the skip button at this point already.

4. I Want It All

The album contains a couple of really fast, but also short songs. The single release I Want It All is one of them. The drumheads are put under maximum stress within 2:14 minutes. Again, the bridge adds an almost psychedelic feeling to the track.

5. White Lies

WIth White Lies, we are in the middle of a block of four single releases. Again there is a psychodelic feeling in this song, which is even massively boosted by the female background singer. Feels like a ghost, doesn’t it? The Meltheads are becoming a bit of scary in this song – especially as the marching drums feel to suggest that you cannot stop the fear.

6. Theodore

The marching drum style is kept for the sixth song of the album, Theodore. The instrumentation leads to a rather industrial sound and almost feels to turn down and cover up Sietse Willems on the microphone.

Well I’m fucking selfish,
I lie and I cheat
About five times a week
But I know you love me
You help me sleep
And I adore you

7. No One Is Innocent

The last song in the block of single releases is another “fast and quick” one. The quartet is just offering us exactly two minutes of this listen. However, the song feels rather straight and more leans towards garage and rock tunes.

8. Arbeit

I don’t wanna work in construction
I don’t wanna work at the bar
I don’t wanna wait tables no more
I don’t want to have a job at all
Arbeit Arbeit
My father worked in coal mines
Arbeit Arbeit

Arbeit means “work” in German. Apart from that word (which feels to act as a German stereotype in here somehow), the lyrics stay in English, though. The cheeky and fresh sound of this song turns it into one of my favorite listens of the album.

9. Gear

After Arbeit has just been a 96 second listen, the 4:18 minute song Gear is the longest listen of the album. I like the compact tracks in this album – but in here, the Meltheads make use of the time and invest into a melodic and lyrics plot, which is working out in a not that bad way.

10. Screwdrivers

The second last song is Screwdrivers. The song is a surprisingly melodic and harmonic rock’n’roll track The unexpected vibes are definitely a fun listen.

11. Melvin

The Belgians are going for a short farewell: the chucker-out Melvin is less than a minute long. It feels quite weird – the press kit also describes it as a “fever dream song”. While I struggle with press kits very often, I feel that this one is a very suitable description.

Meltheads – Decent Sex – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

Meltheads – Decent Sex – My View

The Meltheads offer a nice range of songs in Decent Sex. They also come with a lot of surprising elements, which turns the album into a virtuous, but also somehow experimental listening experience. I feel that the band definitely did show their talent and potential in these 12 tracks. Nonetheless, the sound is not yet good enough for a really high rating.