Night Melody

Night Melody
Studio album by
Rival Consoles
Released5 August 2016 (2016-08-05)
GenreElectronic[1]
Length33:43
LabelErased Tapes
Rival Consoles chronology
Howl
(2015) 		Night Melody
(2016) 		Persona
(2018)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?6.9/10[2]
Metacritic75/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Drowned in Sound7/10[4]
Exclaim!7/10[5]
Mixmag7/10[6]
Pitchfork8.0/10[7]

Night Melody is the fourth studio album by British electronic musician Ryan Lee West, performing under his stage name Rival Consoles. It was released on 5 August 2016, Erased Tapes Records.[8]

Production

Writing for Night Melody began in late-2015, at the same time West's third album Howl was released. West had just come out of a 13-year relationship, inspiring the release of his fourth studio album.[8] In response to the release, West said: "I’ve been working on the mini album for four or five months straight. And I don’t mean that in the glamorous way. It’s been destroying my brain; there’s been a lot of problem solving. The ideas themselves always come quickly, it’s more the second stage of making things better and solving problems."[9]

Critical reception

Night Melody was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 75, based on 6 reviews.[3] Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 72 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 7 reviews.[10]

Writing for AllMusic, Paul Simpson said "The short album is relatively straightforward, with six tracks of subdued, atmospheric techno -- no filler, no beating around the bush. The album isn't quite as dark or sad as one might expect, given the context. It seems like a logical extension of the path he's been taking with his previous few recordings."[1] Stephen Proski of Drowned in Sound wrote "Night Melody was developed as a result of the incarcerated experience of working in abject environments with digital technology: the haunting yet comforting background noise of a hard drive humming. West, when left alone to his devices, is able to transform emotion into the esoteric, colluding synthesis into vibrant, organic swaths of sound."[4] The staff at Mixmag praised West for a richer and more complex sound than his previous releases.[6]

Track listing

Night Melody track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Pattern of the North"5:50
2."Johannesburg"7:22
3."Slow Song"3:52
4."Lone"5:55
5."Night Melody"5:22
6."What Sorrow"5:22

Charts

Chart performance for Night Melody
Chart (2016) Peak
position
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[11] 18

References

  1. ^ a b c Simpson, Paul. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  2. ^ "AnyDecentMusic? Review". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Metacritic Review". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b Proski, Stephen (6 August 2016). "Drowned in Sound Review". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  5. ^ Sylvester, Daniel (3 August 2016). "Exclaim! Review". Exclaim!. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Mixmag Review". Mixmag. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  7. ^ Scheim, Benjamin (5 August 2016). "Pitchfork Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  8. ^ a b Kolada, Brian (9 June 2016). "Rival Consoles returns with new mini album, Night Melody". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  9. ^ Protz, Adam. "Rival Consoles: Turning Darkness Into Melody". Headliner Magazine. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Album of the Year Review". Album of the Year. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  11. ^ "Official Dance Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2 December 2020.