Another Mellow Spring

Mellow | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 13, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Higher Octave
• ASIN: B0000589U8
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,031 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Shinda Shima

2. Paris Sous la Neige

3. Another Mellow Winter

4. Sun Dance

5. Instant Love

6. Mellow, Pt. 1

7. Violet

8. Mellow, Pt. 2

9. Lovely Light

10. Mellow (Organic Version)

11. Mellow [Fila Brazilia Mix]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another schmaltzy pleasure, February 26, 2001

By 

Jonathan Parker (Calgary, AB Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Another Mellow Spring (Audio CD)

The vocoder revival continues! This album captures the quintessential 1970s/space/drugs/glam sound. But it's more vivid and rich than you remembered it, thanks to modern production. It's like stepping into a holographic Milton Glaser poster, like watching Yellow Submarine in surround-sound Dolby THX. Beatle-y mellotron and trumpet abound, as do soft Donovan/Nick Drake/Belle & Sebastian vocal stylings. Touchstones include Air, ELO, Cassius, even (gulp) Alan Parsons. "Paris Sous La Neige" could be this year's "Sexy Boy."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good purchase for chillout fans, December 23, 2006

By 

Danno (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Another Mellow Spring (Audio CD)

I bought this CD for only 5 bucks when Tower Records went under, so there's the chance that my bargain-basement price might make my review a bit on the sunny side. I enjoyed this CD a lot more than I thought I would, being fully prepared not to like it much at all. The songwriters and performers of Mellow clearly aimed to create a style of music that combines the softer elements of Beatles' psychedelia with the lounge/space-age orchestrations of someone like Hugo Montenegro, and for the most part they succeeded quite well. There's plenty of Mellotron used here, which means you hear lots of Strawberry Fields-like flutes and Moody Blues-like violin arrangements. Some of the songs, particularly "Mellow Part 1" could almost pass for Magical Mystery Tour outtakes. Towards the end of the CD, the mixing grows progressively bolder and more contemporary, and the last two versions of the song "Mellow" are particularly enchanting to listen to on headphones. These are the tracks I return to again and again.

As for the downside, there are some truly awful lead vocals on a handful of tracks. Sometimes this is ably disguised by a vocoder, but when they aren't they are some of the worst singing this side of William Hung. Unlike Zero 7, who wisely recruited fantastic outside singers for their projects, Mellow relied on in-house vocals and the non-instrumental songs suffer as a result. Still, the best tracks on this CD do indeed make it worth a purchase.

So, this is a CD that will appeal to you if you like chillout/downtempo arty pop ala Stereophonics, Zero 7, Massive Attack and, yes, Air. If you like this one, I recommend Mellow's soundtrack to the movie "CQ" which is an even better collection of Mellow's material.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good, but too familiar..., July 3, 2001

By 

Chris Lauzon (San Clemente, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Another Mellow Spring (Audio CD)

Good solid album, though a little telegraphed at times. If you are at all familiar with Supertramp's "Breakfast in America", anything by ELO, Grandaddy, Stereolab or a ton of other bands I could name, then this record won't blow you away, because the entire package seems a little TOO familiar-- the vocal line from "Another Mellow Winter" is copped directly from the Beatles' "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people"-- at times it seems like they are trying to rewrite every song in the 1967-68 Beatles catalog. But hell, I guess that's a pretty noble pursuit, in the age of Limp Bizkit and Eve 6... A decent package, sounds great on headphones, worth buying.