Melody’s Echo Chamber - Bon Voyage

Bandcamp Daily

“Bon Voyage” is a record that feels as though it is alive—it changes with every listen, giving new perspectives not only on Prochet’s story, but on what happens when musicians let go of genre or stylistic constraints.

Pitchfork 71

Six years and one nearly fatal accident after her promising debut, French singer-songwriter Melody Prochet celebrates her recovery with an album of gleefully overstuffed psych-pop.

The Guardian 60

(Fat Possum Records)

French singer-songwriter Melody Prochet’s self-titled debut – a collection of radiant psychedelia produced by her then-boyfriend, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker – was released almost six years ago. In 2014, she began trailing its follow-up. Only now, however, has Bon Voyage actually arrived.

The reasons for the four-year delay are rather hazy: in 2017 it was revealed that Prochet had been hospitalised following a serious accident (the details of which have never reached the public), yet the album had been pushed back for years prior to that. Much like its mysterious timeline, Bon Voyage is not a straightforward record. Sung in a mixture of English, French and Swedish, tracks tend to be loose and freeform as they slope between tempos and styles: opener Cross My Heart begins by aping Jefferson Airplane before segueing into a fidgety breakbeat; Breathe in, Breathe Out matches trembling, wiry synths with a Britpoppy chorus; Desert Horse interrupts chunky guitar riffs with helium vocals; Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige’s jazzy drum fills are silenced by a grossly scatalogical spoken-word passage courtesy of Pond’s Nicholas Allbrook.

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