Red Mecca - Covered With Rain

So, let's get on the topic of darkwave act Red Mecca. Jan Strandqvist was the founder of the act back in 1997. After several outings in other bands, including one of the most successful post-punk outfits Brända Barn, but it wasn't until he formed Red Mecca that he found happiness. Capturing the attention of Telegram/Warner Music, they released three singles that got some good circulation via the Swedish National radio P3. After cooperation fell through with the label, dark times fell, and nothing much moved.

That is until 2010, when Standqvist started to play live again. Finding a new audience with his live shows that had a slew of guest appearances, it was high time he recorded a new album. That's when he met vocalist Frida Madeleine, getting rid of the sampled voices and re-recording the vocals with her chords, the result was beauty. And now we're smacked right with the present.

Covered With Rain is the latest installment from this sensation, and this time around Madeleine has been involved with the writing process from the beginning. Swaying in with his illuminating soundscapes, Strandqvist and Madeleine have crafted a sweet sounding, and yet darkly imaginative album worth sitting on the shelves of anyone bright enough to take a listen to this album.

When It's Empty allows simple ambient music focusing on organ play to ring in the background as Madeleine's vocals slide into your ears. Eventually taking over your body, this siren sucks you into the album and makes sure you're willing to stay for the rest of its duration. This opening track was perhaps the most accurate form of artistry I've ever seen come from a song.

Pressue (Would I Crack) gets on into a more valuable beat, one that definitely is still stuck in a past era, but that does not make me complain one bit. The synths come in nicely, and the ambient notes that come in like a soft bodied spirit is wonderful not only to my ears, but to the core of my soul as well. Talk about music you could relax to.

More dreamy in composition, Saved offers another howling song, the vocals emphasizing an echo. It's as if an angel has come down from the Heaven's above to serenade you hear on Earth. Absolutely fantastic.

Without too many dragged out synths this time around, Highest Mountain On Mars, a slower beat is rolled out with slight little electronic touches everywhere. The vocals change with the beat; rather than being soft and rolled off nicely, she opts in for shorter strands of almost spoken out like phrases. The change does not detract from the fascination within the song, however.

Her Name Was Emergency shows off a bit of a punk vibe mixed in with the ambient soundscapes and darkwave aesthetics that have made the album glorious to begin with. An instrumental through and through, the drum work cracked out a new twist on the album that has yet to be seen, and the synth work was phenomenal once more.

Call Me Up continues to solidify the album in its place, a bit of a faster pace that continued with drum work. Travelogue, however, worked its way to a very well paced song; the synths once more dragged creating this holy sound, Madeleine's powerful voice once more blessing the songs found within.

I absolutely fell in love with the laid back emotional gust that Doorway offered through and through. The title track of the album, Covered With Rain, came in as the longest track at seven and a half minutes. Within that span of time, the two artists were able to cover everything from slow beats, to guitar tinged sounds, to sentimental intros and outros. And, not wanting to disappoint the fans, When It's Empty Again leaves us off with a final and loving goodbye kiss.

And what's there to say more about this album that I haven't already said? If you're the impatient type that doesn't like to read paragraph after paragraph, it's easy as Hell to just say that album is worth every ounce of your attention that you can muster. It's fantastic, with bare a flaw to find in it. These two people have created such a harmonious synchronization with one another that you'll be hell bent to find another pair quite like it. Check it out, listen to it. And embrace every ounce of love that was poured into this album as you would your own child. Sep 30 2014