Melody Moko Breaks Down Every Track On New Album ‘Suburban Dream’

Melody Moko is changing the face of country music as we know it with the release of her stunning new album, Suburban Dream. Melding contemporary and edgy lyrical content with finely finessed Americana production, Suburban Dream is like no other release, and further cements the Golden Guitar Award winning artist, as an unrivalled innovator of the craft.

As a whole, Suburban Dream is an exploration of life as a wife in suburbia with Melody putting her life under a microscope, magnifying the struggles and joys she’s experienced over the past two years.

With the ability to reach more people after the success of her previous record, Melody set out to show what she stands for, make a stand for the issues that she faces as a mother, a member of the queer community, an activist, and a woman. The album is almost protest art, bold and emblazoned with hard-hitting, and sometimes hard to hear messages.

She says, “Suburban Dream was born from darkness and depression, the record is a diary entry into what it looks like to hit rock bottom and documents both the downfall and the recovery, it’s equal parts hopeful and hopeless.”

We’re so delighted to bring you this exclusive track by track, as Melody Moko talks us through each individual track: the creation, sentiment, and everything in between.

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1. Jesus Year 

Jesus Year came about from a concept my manager (Kaz Waters) wanted me to embody. A Jesus year is your 33rd year, a year where you are reborn in some sense. I felt that after suffering badly with Post Natal Depression after the birth of my 3rd child, I had recovered as a “better” person than I had been going into it. This song celebrates the idea that out of adversity comes triumph. 

2. The Outskirts 

My favourite part of this song is the guitar part my 9-year-old son plays on the recording, he came with us to Nashville, and he had his recording debut on this track, one of his favourites on the record! This song helped to shape the real Australian feel this record has. It’s a comment on society and class warfare. 

3. Not A Child 

I wrote this track after an experience with a photographer who was inappropriate with a younger artist on a shoot I was on. It was a trauma trigger for me because, as a younger female, I often misinterpreted this kind of behaviour as validation, and I spent years seeking out male attention. This song celebrates how maturing and gaining perspective helps you to look inward as a woman to loving yourself rather than relying on what men think of you.

4. Last Good Man

My love song! This one came about by trying something new on guitar. I wrote it after a sleeping pill, so it almost feels dreamlike to me. I was strumming the guitar so softly with just my fingertips and thinking of my husband and it’s love story. This song is that narrative and a reminder to me, that he is and always will be a “good man”. 

5. Suburban Dream 

The title track for the record, and really the track that shaped the entire concept for the album. I love an album that tells a story and Suburban Dream is the first chapter of this albums story. It was hard for me to write this one as it’s honest and really hits hard on some personal subjects, but it’s a vignette of life as a wife in suburbia, and it doesn’t shy away from the truth of life with kids and how that affects a relationship dynamic.

6. Child Of Mine

I LOVE the production on this track, it’s so dreamy and atmospheric and I remember thinking how perfectly it explored all the individual sonic elements of the record in the one song. This is my favourite melody on the record too. (not me, but actual melody haha!)

7. Ain’t What You Used To Be

First of all, the guitars on this track slay! They are probably the best guitar parts on any Melody Moko song ever. I’d been listening to an intense amount of Sheryl Crow here – you can hear it! And the big question? Is it about anyone in particular? It’s not! It’s actually about a fictionalised version of a future self who lets ego get the best of her. 

8. ‘Till The Day I Die Feat. Michael Moko

Michael (my husband, producer, guitarist) and I wrote this the day before we left to make the record. I wrote my verse for him like a letter, and he wrote his back to me, and we came together to write the chorus. I love that we did it like this because it’s authentically each of our voices writing these sweet nothings! 

9. Every Second Year

An interesting fact about this one, it’s the demo of the song that we recorded at home and when we went into the studio, we all decided it was perfect as is! So, it is a little moment in time on the record. Lyrically, it’s about Christmas with the in laws being my least favourite kinda Christmas (sorry husband!). Because don’t we all think our family has the best Christmas, or at least the most interesting in my case?!

10. Sweet Magnolia 

This is a sweet little ode to my daughter, Magnolia, for all the things I hope she is, and experiences. It’s a gorgeous track instrumentally, the acoustic guitar that Juan Solorzano plays (guitarist for Ruston Kelly) epitomises why I wanted him on the record so badly.

11. Great Australian Dream

This is the hardest song to sing, and to talk about. It’s a protest song. It talks of some pretty dark experiences. It is calling out some of the less desirable qualities in humans, and in our culture. It hits pretty hard and is still hard for me to listen to because of how uncomfortable it feels to be so transparent. 

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Melody will tour Suburban Dream in 2023 – see dates here.