I Was All Over Her - By Salvia Palth
TITLE: I Was All Over Her
ARTIST: Salvia Palth
GENRE: Dream Pop / Lo-fi
MOOD: Dejected / Gloomy
SIMILAR TO: Flatsound, Elvis Depressedly
Sometimes album titles don't quite match the actual album, but Melanchole is one of the most accurate titles I’ve ever seen. It is evocative not of the type of raw angst popular among other emo outfits, but instead of a distinct emotion: downtempo dejection. Melanchole finds power within its melodic and instrumental authenticity regarding the frigid, extended lows of depression. “I Was All Over Her” is the most popular track on the album with good reason. The acoustic melody is slow and quiet; frontman Daniel Johann’s droning voice is reverberating and surreal. His recollection of a party exemplifies the tone of the album, singing “I guess I am always (lonely)/it’s not a problem/It’s just something/I got used to it”.
There’s a complacency in Johann’s despondence that sets it apart from most emo I’d listened to before Melanchole. We don’t see the intense rage of bands like PUP or Joyce Manor, because the angst of those albums implies a continuous rage against inner strife, but we instead see a thing of downcast beauty. Melanchole is a different beast, surrendering to that strife.