Alex Melton doesn’t make impressive music. He doesn’t make bad music, either, but that’s not too relevant to this discussion. He’s in the process of breaking from the strict ‘covers artist’ mould into releasing his own, original music, something which requires an angle that he just doesn’t seem to have. The makings of one were on 2023’s Southern Charm—pop-punk renditions of country songs and vice versa—until you realise how unviable that might be in a full career context. The tear-in-your-beer treatment of The Amity Affliction’s Soak Me In Bleach is excellent; it being more than an isolated chunk of a covers album is impossible.
Nevertheless, you’d think Melton might at least see what he can do. Copping the intersection between the scene and modern country music is precisely what’s seen Bilmuri’s profile skyrocket, with a conspicuous lack of hangers-on. The Process, though, might pay it a glance before deciding against it. What transpires instead is palatable, vanilla pop-rock, not even crossing the line to swap that suffix for ‘-punk’.
Ironically, it’s that obstinate commitment to disregarding individuality that leaps out most about Melton. Wherever you look on The Process, something appears to have been sandblasted or whitewashed, lest even a crumb of observable personality remains. Alan Day produces, though you’re severely mistaken if you expect any Four Year Strong-style heft to break through. It’s a clean, languid sound, all in all, incapable of raising a pulse, let alone causing offence. Even the song titles evoke the correct vibe of heady romance and deliberately non-deliberate scale—Falling In Love Again; Infinity; Hurricane; Feel It All. In a way that sounds meaner than is probably warranted, it’s the exact template you’d expect from an artist in Melton’s position, where he’s breaking out of a novelty niche and approaching this next phase with kid gloves and training wheels firmly on.
Perhaps it’s the might of Pure Noise behind it that conditions you to expect better. If this were some independent release winging its way directly from Melton’s bedroom, you also might not be wowed but you’d pay no mind, either. No, it’s the fact that there’s a pop-punk juggernaut serving as a platform, ultimately giving its weaknesses a much thicker outline. Songs like Falling In Love Again and Look Up are perfectly pleasant—maybe even catchy enough, if you’re in the right mood—but by no means are they paragons of their genre in style. You can tell that Melton’s era of pop-punk is squarely in the 2000s from his own work sounding like how the modern update of that tends to go. Thus, The Process inadvertently lodges itself in the bottleneck, trapped by the likes of Yellowcard or Good Charlotte who, even if they mightn’t be better these days, have the benefit of established history and inertia.
Even so, it can’t be denied that the effort and the willingness to push forth is absolutely there on The Process. Melton has a clear voice that projects well, and he sounds happy to be here, if nothing else. Plus, even if you’ll never remember this album long-term, the big emotions can do enough to catch you in the moment. The whoosh of Hurricane and the long sway of Thunderstorms convey exactly what they intend to with no obstruction. Furthermore, the tiniest touch of banjo on Moment is not only a nice addition, but looks towards what could’ve been had this been taken a bit further.
It’s not bittersweet, though; it’s too innocuous a presence for that. You might as well say that about The Process as a whole, an album that’s slap-bang in ‘okay’ territory to the point of outright ephemera. Not that it’s too much of a shock; Melton’s covers releases are typically unified as a “fresh take”, which often feels unreasonably generous for quasi-emo-pop renditions of pop-punk songs. This is basically the same, an original work insofar as there are new words sung. Nothing is stepping outside of preordained boundaries, or staking a claim for something greater. It’s just…sorta fine, and rather forgettable.
For fans of: Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, We The Kings
‘The Process’ by Alex Melton is released on 5th March on Pure Noise Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
