- Music
- 27 Jul 21
Irish, Brighton-based songwriter, producer and vocalist Meljoann is returning this Friday with her self-produced, sophomore album offering HR.
Unconventional Irish pop act Meljoann has released the final single from her forthcoming album, HR, in the form of '90s R&B banger 'I Quit'.
The Whitney Houston-esque slow jam describes giving up the day job while showing off superb vocals and a razor sharp wit.
The album, which drops this Friday (July 30th) is a follow up to Meljoann’s critically-acclaimed debut album Squick which was released in 2010.
Sonically, HR jumps between the decades, from early 2000’s pop with tracks such as ‘O Supervisor’ to '90s RnB-infused electronica (‘I Quit’), with elements of '80s, Prince-inspired pop (‘Consumer’) and hard-edged industrial rock (‘Business Card’) scattered throughout.
The lyrics, vivid in detail, with breathtaking imagery, depict an artist examining their relationship to consumerism and gives voice to the collective delusion that we will one day feel comfortable and secure, and on that day we will choose to change the system from the inside.
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“HR represents the ways in which we collude with, prop up, and replicate capitalism in our relationships and inner lives. Its underlying concept describes our economic fundamentalism as a self-fulfilling model of reality that no-one escapes from: our utility as Human Resources”.
Meljoann has been steadily growing hype for DIY releases on her label, Boy Scout Audio. In 2009, she released her debut project the Tour Guide EP, which began the trend of Meljoann’s hard-hitting lyrical realism and her willingness to speak on the most pressing topics of the day.
The EP was soon followed by her critically acclaimed debut album Squick. These releases were followed by the BBC Radio 6 Music supported dance album Masterkinder: Rainbow in my Mind (2014), which was released under the alias Scout Hardcastle.
Last year, Meljoann received a highly coveted £10,000 grant from the Arts Council of England to make five videos for HR.
Over the years, the multi-talented act has played support for artists such as Ghostpoet, Telepathe and Mu-ziq as well headliners and raves on the Irish and Berlin scenes. Her live sets contain pop songs, dance tracks, disorientating sound design, and visual projections with dystopian power-point slides.
Listen to 'I Quit' below: