Tuesday's Earful: U-Melt - Perfect World

By: David Schultz

A not-so-unfair criticism lobbed at jambands by those who aren’t fans of the genre is the tendency to fill up time and space with a bevy of unnecessary digressions and indulgent solos. For the less verbose, it’s called noodling. However, as U-Melt repeatedly proves, not every song that extends past the seven minute mark meanders and in the hands of talented musicians, lengthy offerings can transform into a fascinating odyssey. On Perfect World, the New York based band’s third studio release, they harness the finesse and energy of their stage performance, channeling it through a wide ranging selection of road-tested songs with the resulting work being their finest album yet.

One of those rare albums that rewards repeated listens, the intricate arrangements found on Perfect World reciprocate the care given by discerning ears. There is hardly an insignificant note or wasted ruffle. Whether it’s the Floyd-like mechanics at the conclusion of “Disclaimer” or the dystopian swirl into which “Question Matters” briefly dips its wings, there’s no escaping the fact that these are carefully constructed epics. The progressive rock minded twists and turns of “Elysian Fields,” one of their many electronica-jam opuses, the earthy, jazzier circuits of “Panacea” and the multi-tiered “Green Paper Society” show off Zac Lasher’s brilliance at forming compelling soundscapes with his bevy of keyboards, Rob Salzer’s wizardry as an electrifying guitarist, Adam Bendy’s mastery of weaving deceptively complex bass lines into the mix and George Miller’s remarkable versatility to shift the mood from pacific jazz to pulsing untz with a single beat of the snare drum.

For lengthy stretches of Perfect World, U-Melt rewrites guidelines set forth long ago by progressive rock pioneers like Yes and Genesis. Amidst the prog-electronica, U-Melt shifts gears with “Pura Vida,” which has a synth hook as good as anything produced by MGMT and Hot Chip, “Clear Light,” which stripped of it’s psychedelics might be a strangely compelling show tune and the title track, which in a perfect world would catapult them onto radio stations across the country. For years, “you have to see them live” would be the caveat for jamband apologists for uninspiring studio fare. No such rights need be reserved with Perfect World.