It's amazing that on the release of their "debut" record, Mellow sound redundant. Take a gander at the events that led up to Another Mellow Spring: in 1999, the French trio released their debut LP, Another Mellow Winter, in their homeland. In 2000, a similar version of that record was released in the UK, this time under the name Another Mellow Summer. Now, Americans are privileged to a domestic release of Mellow's debut, which offers a nearly identical tracklist as its British counterpart. The 12-track record features such songs as, "Another Mellow Winter," "Mellow (Part 1)," "Mellow (Part 2)," "Mellow (Organic Version)," and "Mellow (Fila Brazilia Mix #1)."

So, we're being repeatedly hit over the head about the tone Mellow is so desperately trying to convey (that's... er... a mellow, possibly seasonal one). We're slapped doubly by the fact that a third of the record retreads the same song. A third! But the repetition and replication don't stop at the titles. To call Mellow "derivative," would be like calling the Velvet Underground "notable." The boys in Mellow don't simply take note of their influences and slip bits of them into their sound. Rather, their music is a salad bowl assembled by fairly adroit chefs who've added Syd Barrett, King Crimson, and the Beatles for seasoning. Air is the lettuce of their sound, and it's dressed with sweet and tangy tweeness.

It's almost pointless to mention that there's nothing on Another Mellow Spring that's wholly original. There's not a note, a chord progression, a funky analog keyboard sound, or a vocoder-aided vocal that belongs to only them. When Mellow finds success on their record, it's because they funnel the past so well that they create the kind of music we know we've heard before, but relish hearing again.

"Instant Love" is the record's shining moment precisely for this reason. It's an unbelievably catchy, perfectly sparse, midtempo three-minute pop song that includes some of the only vocals on the record that aren't fucked with. Naked, falsetto pipes float over tender, lo-fi guitar and drums during the verses, and recall 70's AM pop. The "ahh's" of the chorus crescendo into light psychedelia, while soft horns punctuate the song with a distinctly Muzak feel. It's a soulful tune, and decidedly inspired, in every sense of the word.

The greatness of "Instant Love" stems from its encompassment of previous genres, not direct artist-hearkening. It's a rare moment of Mellow looking beyond immediate influences to forge something that's almost unclassifiable and full of life. But this vision doesn't last for long. Elsewhere, we hear Mellow doing Air, like on "Another Mellow Winter," "Lovely Light" and all parts of "Mellow" (though the remixes include electro beats, which while not at all radical, definitely serve to vary things slightly).

"Violet" is a wee, Donovan-esque bouncing ballad. The goofy "Sun Dance" works like an attempt to pack the Beatles' entire drug haze into a four-minute shoestring romp. From its "I Am the Walrus" opening keyboards and the horns that echo the melody of "Hello Goodbye," to warped vocals and the "sun king" and "sun queen" characters of the song, it's a compact re-visitation that, considering its source, is excruciatingly lame.

Despite its flaws, Another Mellow Spring makes for a pleasant collection of French pop as a whole. Mellow's music sounds even better as part of Roman Coppola's upcoming film, CQ. Taking a note from his sister Sofia, who commissioned Air to write the score for her first film, The Virgin Suicides, Roman enlisted the help of Mellow to score his directorial debut. The movie takes place in Paris during the late 60's/early 70's and chronicles the making of a cheeseball Barbarella-style sci-fi movie (among other things).

While Mellow's music is less visceral than Air's Virgin Suicides score, it has a symbiotic relationship with the film. It adds a gentle tone to the movie, and the movie, in turn, takes a few of Another Mellow Spring's more pedestrian tracks and frames them in a context in which they sound pertinent and alive. What's spectacular about Coppola's film is that he allows a genuine humanness and poignancy to shine through the superficial kitsch. Mellow don't achieve this on their record, but provide a near-perfect underpinning for such a refreshing accomplishment.

-Richard M. Juzwiak