mon cher – ‘sweet & heady’ [Album Review]

At the end of last year, Denver-based singer and producer mon cher, aka Meghan Holton, released her new album, sweet & heady, a dreamy indie-electronic collection of tracks.

mon cher says, “I wrote this album over the course of 2023, trying to explore all of the love, loss and wanting that I’ve ever experienced.”

Written, produced, mixed, and mastered by mon cher, sweet & heady parades the scope of her talents. The only assistance she received came from her life partner/co-producer Caitlyn Sullivan, who also plays drums during their live sets. The femme duo shared the stage with Soccer Mommy and performed at Underground Music Festival and FoCoMx, along with touring the Midwest and West Coast.

Encompassing eight tracks, sweet & heady begins with “on my mind,” opening on emerging tones flowing into a syncopated rhythm topped by shimmering harmonic layers and mon cher’s drifting, wraithlike vocals.

Entry points include “mess,” with its dark, pulsating synths and chiming topline. There’s a low-slung, subdued aching quality to mon cher’s voice, which, rather than concealing her profound emotions, accentuates the storm of turmoil taking place inside.

For some reason, “Fate” recalls Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” because of its deep, oozing synths and flickering radiant sonic filaments riding over smoldering percussion. The floating textures of “this world” allow mon cher, like a sorrowful Siren, to exhibit her carried-on-the-breeze timbres.

mon cher, photo by Meesh Deyden

A personal favorite and arguably the best song on the album, the title track – an homage to Nina Simone’s “Lilac Wine” – rolls forth on atmospheric textures, imbuing the tune with musing ambiance, soft, ethereal, and deliciously wistful.

Caparisoned in a canvas of suspended, blushing synths and temperate rhythms, the highlight of sweet & heady is the ghostly voice of mon cher.

sweet & heady Track Listing:

1. on my mind
2. talk
3. mess
4. fate
5. the body
6. this world
7. sweet & heady
8. soon

Run Time: 27:57
Release Date: November 10, 2023
Record Label: Independent