Easing into Always Even is like easing into a particularly tranquil dream. Opener ‘Slow Wake’ is the sound of being ushered invitingly into a breezy field of green, with blue skies and white fluffy clouds rounding off an image of perfect dreamy peace. It is psychedelic rock utilised as a means to an end. The end being a state of harmony and contentment rarely reached in real life.
For its thirty-seven minute run time then, Always Even is an able demonstration of why Carlton Melton are so highly regarded in psych circles these days. It’s a perfect representation of the genre’s aims in many a sense, down to the wafting, uncertain manner in which the protagonists steer the (relatively) upbeat sections of tracks like ‘Keeping on’ and ‘Sarsen’. The only real problem is that sometimes it comes across as a little too perfect.
You see the best psychedelic rock comes armed with a certain degree of unpredictability. You don’t necessarily want to know where the train will take you, but it’s blatantly obvious from the outset of each of the five compositions here where Carlton Melton are heading. From the audible strumming to the soothing drones that make up a large swathe of the sonic landscape present, Always Even is something of a psych rock cliché book at points.
As hinted at in the opening paragraph, this does not make Always Even a fundamentally unsatisfying record. It’s pleasant, in much the same way as a good night’s sleep or a filling evening meal after a hard day at work. However the degree to which it satisfies is predetermined by the context in which it is set. If you’re a big psych fan then perhaps this approaches being essential. If not it’s like your average sleep or your average evening meal. In effect, Always Even is perfectly enjoyable whilst it lasts but you’re not still going to be thinking about it two or three days later.
