A cathartic divorce album that draws from traditional folk, but still maintains its own modern sound.
In the world of music, marital strife is as sad of an occurrence as it is for us non-musician folk, but the difference is, it can also be a rich songwriting well from which an artist can draw – Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood on the Tracks’ anyone? So after a long, drawn-out divorce in 2022, veteran Swedish singer-songwriter Nicolai Dunger, who has more than 25 albums to his name, decided to channel his sorrow into his newest release, ‘Melody Rules’.
“Learning to be friends with you / Learning all the ways of you,” Dunger admits on ‘Learning’, a song that rises and swells as he struggles to navigate the new landscape of a relationship that’s been re-defined in the wake of a separation. The album’s title track has a smooth, indie carelessness to it while Dunger nonetheless talks of “how to live with” and “how to deal with” an “it” we can only assume is having to start afresh post-divorce. The bluesy ‘Golden Throne’ finds him bitter at where he’s ended up, while on the folkish, string-laden ‘What You See If What You Get’, he insists that he will “always get” the one he wants “in the end”.
“For everyone that is a one that waits / It takes you up it, takes you down / It takes you further into your secret heart,” sings Dunger, his voice drowsy but controlled, on ‘For Every Song’, his love letter to music and the fans who rely on it. ‘Let Go of Your Heart’ sees him struggle with moving forward, his vocals faltering and a little more than a whisper at times as he tries to convince himself to “begin [the] hardest travel to another world, another place” against a thrumming cello played by Svante Henrysson.
The twinkling piano lead ‘Goodbye With A Song’ is not only the most classically melancholic divorce song on the album, but also a standout track. “Goodbye pretty one, the tables are set now / For you to turn free, for me to be crushed,” Dungers bemoans, a true pain so raw in his voice that the words hurt. “The eyes are set on you / The eyes of the world / So goodbye with a song, hello to emptiness.”
“I can do without the heartache you invoke in my heart / I can walk among the ruins I created in my past,” Dunger tells on ‘To Be Tough’, self-aware and accepting of the relationship he’s lost and the person he’s left behind. “But I find it hard to live without songs,” he then confesses; that’s the beautiful thing about music, its ability to help us through the hard times and help to mend our broken souls, and while “Melody Rules” might not exactly be “Blood on the Tracks”, hopefully it helps Dunger finds not only healing and peace for himself, but some listeners along the way, too.
