Red Mecca - Truth (2019)

When I heard that Red Mecca had a new album in the pipeline I was overwhelmed with joy. My curiosity regarding how the dynamics between Jan Strandqvist and new vocalist Susanne Jonsson would unfold and about how the constellation would take the project forward after Frida Madeleine left the band in 2018 grew. Curiosity and expectation, but never any worries. Jan always leads you by a safe hand onto his musical landscape. What he was looking for (and found) in Susanne, her voice and ability to perform the songs, feels like a wise choice. Two equal parts with interesting music and interesting vocals.

So when I began to listen to the new album Truth, my love relationship began instantly. It’s so liberating to be a little enamored and not knowing what’s to come in this, often straightforward and “mainstream” way that many, unfortunately, make music these days. But the nine songs on Truth don’t pass you by, they require some focus while they all contain small features and the more you listen, the more there is to find.

Of course, the mind is set in motion and it wants to make a lot of references to other bands and singers and my own mind was no exception. The uptempo song “Our Story Told” has an intensity and nerve that makes me think of the American act Poliça and singer Channy Leaneagh‘s ability to push the claws inside you from the first verse line with a grip that doesn’t let you get away until the song is over and those are the same kind of claws that Susanne has been gifted with.

On “This Could Be A Revolution”, she uses a drier and sharper voice with clear vibration that is reminiscent of Nina Persson‘s (The Cardigans) soulful singing style. Occasionally, Susanne pushes on so much that oneself almost helps it on from diaphragm. Nice!

But that’s enough of comparisons because Truth deserves to be listened to decoupled from other music. In summary, it is a pleasure to listen to such a multi-faceted vocalist whose voice is full of character and elements of strength, raspiness, jazziness and darkness.

As I mentioned above, Jan is a master when it comes to creating amazing electronic sound panoramas. Sometimes with a tense nerve that tremble and sometimes with a bombastic liberating slackness. Already from the opening track “A Dark Place” we’re being led through a kind of ambient and electro-organic soundscape, into a deep forest (perhaps) somewhere around the area of the band’s hometown Sundsvall where you easily could feel you’d want to stay for a good while. Through a combination of dark waves of analog synth sounds, slight dissonance and well-directed arpeggios the duo delivers an album to enbed you in the autumn darkness.

Red Mecca can look back on a great career that has led to both an award in the synth genre of the Swedish Manifest awards for the album Electricity and live performances on some of Europe’s biggest alternative festival and concert stages. With Truth we’ve got nine new reasons to continue to follow their exciting journey.