Album review: The Hurting Scene by Melody Pool

From time to time I'll hear an album that from almost the first note makes me want to lie down weeping with joy that I've heard it - or it makes me feel like my head is going to explode from trying to work out what's going on, because it's all so good, and from trying to take it all in on that first listening, temporarily forgetting that I can listen to it again (and again and again).

As you may have guessed from that introduction, that's how I feel about The Hurting Scene, the new album from Melody Pool, who hails from the Hunter region of New South Wales. This is a sophisticated collection of exquisitely played and produced songs that launch themselves straight at the listener's heart - well before the head gets involved - and strike definitively. I almost swooned during the first song, and kept swooning throughout. 

There is a balance of rolling and rambunctious with wistful and contemplative, struck from the first two tracks, 'The Hurting Scene' and 'Open Book'. There are stories here and thanks to Melody's voice - which is sweet but not syrupy, clean edged and clear - they are all heartbreaking. Hers is the voice of someone who should be years older - Pool is 21 - because it is so assured and knowing and sometimes melancholy. It is a voice that makes you want to crawl inside the songs and stay there as you listen to tales of travel and woe and self-reflection, time slipping past and love slipping away that mark Pool as an accomplished songwriter as much as she is a gifted singer. 

I ordered Melody's album (old-school CD) from her website - you can too at www.melodypool.com.au. It's also available on iTunes.