If you were raised on the music of bands — as diverse as The Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Queen or even The Sex Pistols — that embraced the concept of melody as being a core-value of their sound, you may have had a falling out with the increasing phenomena in modern music (and it has been going on for about 20 years now) where a band has virtually no fucking idea what melody even is. Emo bands are particularly heinous offenders. Seriously, I have to sift through maybe 2 dozen new video clips each week just to find one with a bit of melody in it. This week, the clip that stood out to me as transcendently melodic to the high standards I have set for this columns is called “Leave With You” by a Toronto-based duo (!) called Beliefs.

Aurally, the pummeling, Keith Moon-style drumming which propels this track into the realm of greatness may cause some to call foul on my melodic-quality-claims, but if you think that only slow music has melody, you need to get out of town right now, because you have no grasp of music, and I am embarrassed for you. I also enjoy how the bed of soft, somewhat indistinct vocals flow in and around the sharper edges of the rhythm tracks. The hard/soft dynamic: you are doing it right.

Visually, “Leave With You” encourages imaginative extrapolation by presenting the viewer with an attractive, artistic minimalism that strikes a compelling balance between performance art and commercial imaging. Also, a party appears to start around the 2:15 mark, and parties are fun. Watching “Leave With You” makes me want to go shopping at Uniqlo, a store where I always have a happy experience, even when I purchase nothing.

“Leave With You” can be found on Beliefs‘ sophomore album, Leaper, out now via the Hand Drawn Dracula label. Like them on the FaceBook at This Link! Enjoy!

Beliefs are Jesse Crowe and Josh Korody