Melt, the New York-based indie outfit that first made a splash with 2017 viral hit “Sour Candy” and has been gradually making a name for itself since with its gripping mix of soul, rock, and pop, has released its debut full-length album, If There’s a Heaven.
Recorded live to tape with producer Sam Evian, If There’s a Heaven, features 11 tracks that range from existential, feel-good pop songs to stirring ballads to lush, soulful rock and roll. A soundtrack for coming of age and finding oneself and one’s community, the album represents the culmination of a process that began seven years ago with the release of “Sour Candy”, written and recorded when the band’s members were still in high school. After spending the next five years studying at separate colleges and linking up on weekends to play shows, the group released its West Side Highway EP in 2021 and toured nationally, further developing the intuitive creative relationship between its members and cementing Melt—comprised of Veronica Stewart-Frommer (vocals), Marlo Shankweiler (guitar), Eric Gabriel (piano), and Lucas Saur (bass)—as a band on the rise.
The first single from the album, “Plant the Garden”, was recorded in April 2023 with Sam Evian at Flying Cloud Studios in the Catskills. The experience was so positive and immersive, vocalist Veronica Stewart-Frommmer explained to Live For Live Music, that Melt decided to return to Flying Cloud in December 2023 to record the entire album. The album’s Catskills origins also helped the band select the album’s eye-catching cover art, a 1970s photo of a young woman at a Catskills summer camp wearing a shirt printed with the word “SEXY.”
As the band explained in a social media post, while the woman in the photo is actually guitarist Marlo Shankweiler’s mother, the fact that they found it was simply a stroke of luck. “In 2022,” the band wrote, “a New Yorker article on the teenage summer camp experience in the 1970s was making the rounds in the band group chat. We often joke that Melt tours roll through town like a traveling summer camp—we’re always seeking out a good activity or wholesome group meal and also have a number of former campers and camp counselors in the band. But that’s not why we were so excited about the article. The piece features photographs of kids at Camp Mountain Lake in 1977 shot by Andy Sweet, a photographer best known for his work documenting the vibrant elderly Jewish community of Miami Beach and his unorthodox use of color photography (most serious photographers at the time preferred to stick to black-and-white). Out of the whole collection, we happened to know the starlet pictured on the article’s cover photo. It was Marlo’s mom, Tara, wielding a tennis racket & dressed in Converse, pom-pom socks (a ‘70s classic), and a t-shirt that screams SEXY.”
“The four of us were immediately taken with the photo,” the band continued, “and when it came time to choose an album cover we were all thinking the same thing. There are a million things I could say about a coming-of-age album, Tara’s come-at-me attitude and sheer tween confidence, or why Sweet’s art resonates so deeply with all of us. But the photo means different things to each of us, so we’ll let you write your own story about it.”
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While the eleven tracks on If There’s a Heaven cycle through distinct stylistic approaches, they fit together impeccably as a cohesive work. From the opening “Fake Romantic” to the closing “Communion”, Melt emits a warm, nostalgic glow that makes the new LP feel lived-in and welcoming, like it just arrived today from a bygone era (which one, we can’t be sure). Stewart-Frommer’s vocal acrobatics and speak-to-your-soul delivery help lyrical themes of brutal self-reflection pack a dizzying emotional punch, but thanks to the mystifying moods set by the band and the hypnotically enveloping quality of the record’s production, the hard truths and clever self-love epiphanies that dot its tracks as quotable hooks go down with remarkable ease.
Listen to If There’s a Heaven, the debut full-length album from Melt, on the platform of your choice here or stream it via the Spotify player below.
Melt – If There’s a Heaven – Full Album
Melt is set to celebrate the release of If There’s a Heaven with a fall tour stretching throughout October and into November. Notable stops along the way include Chicago, IL’s Park West (10/4), Madison, WI’s High Noon Saloon (10/7), Denver, CO’s Ogden Theatre (10/12), Seattle, WA’s Neumos (10/18), San Francisco, CA’s The Independent (10/22), Los Angeles, CA’s The Bellwether (10/24), Austin, TX’s Antone’s Nightclub (10/29), Nashville, TN’s Cannery Hall – The Mil (11/1), Asheville, NC’s The Grey Eagle (11/2), Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club (11/7), Philadelphia, PA’s Brooklyn Bowl Philly (11/8), and Boston, MA’s Royale (11/9).
View a full list of upcoming Melt If There’s a Heaven tour dates below. For ticketing details, head here.
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