Image by Mclean Stephenson

The Melodrones’ self-titled debut is finally here.

Must’ve been about six years ago that we first came across The Melodrones, so if you’ve been playing along at home, it will come as no surprise to you that we’ve decided to make them our Artist of the Week. It really does feel like over that period, we’ve used just about every superlative at hand to describe them – “charismatic performers”, “melodic serenaders”, on an “endless quest to marry shoegaze, motown and 60s rock in holy matrimony” – and it’s all true.

On first listen, the album is this humming homage to the doo-wop and new wave that, if you didn’t speak a lick of English, you’d think was all sunshine and rainbows with the odd broken heart. After delving in, you realise that there’s a real seedy underbelly that’s raunchy and sarcastic.

The album has been pieced together over the years, with songs coming from all corners of the world and various bedrooms. “One housemate, Johnny, had a bluegrass band that rehearsed all the time on their banjos, dobros and mandolins, driving me up the fucking wall,” says singer and guitarist Rik Saunders. “I was in the next room writing ‘I’ll Belong to You’ and ‘Eyelash Wishes’, playing softly and singing under my breath. Another time I was living with Jack (the best songwriter Australia has never heard), so ‘Til Kingdom Come’, ‘Bad News from Berlin’ and Mel’s track ‘Swimming’ were written there.”

The band linked up with Wade Keighran, who helped polish (or perhaps remove the polish from) those tracks. “There was no second-guessing ourselves,” singer and bassist Melissah Mirage adds. “Wade completely understood the tension and chaos we needed to underpin the production.”

The Melodrones is out now on Third Eye Stimuli Records (digital) and Impressed Recordings (vinyl), and you can catch them supporting that Gum x Ambrose from King Gizz joint at Crowbar on the 11th of April (tickets)