Robert Melkumyan’s ‘Dice’ is an incredibly nuanced pop ballad that’s operatic and colorful. A great display of Melkumyan’s tantalizing list of influences and his capabilities as a songwriter, ‘Dice’ is one of the best-written pop ballads of 2025 thus far.
Based in London, England, Robert Melkumyan is a singer and songwriter originally from Artsakh, Armenia, and it is where ‘Dice’ was first dreamt up during the 2023 blockade, a time of war and isolation which is reflected in the song’s emotional tendencies explored in the dazzling string arrangement and general tendency to a sense of bittersweet melancholy.
‘Dice’ is like an amalgamation of The Beatles, Radiohead, and Bowie, with subtle hints of Muse and Queen easily spotted in there as well. Robert Melkumyan’s operatic and classically inspired chord sequences are vivid with color and intricacy, and it is here that we find Radiohead and Muse. The scratchy tremolo-picked guitar line especially mirrors Muse, that is not to mention the solo that concludes the song, which screams Jonny Greenwood. The adventurous acoustic guitar rhythms recall Radiohead’s work on The Bends, and the soft, harmonized vocals are where The Beatles’ influence comes in. A rather varied and artful piece of music that showcases a capable musician.
‘Dice’ and its dazzling progressions and nuanced structure kept me coming for the replay button time and again, and left me thirsty for more music from Robert Melkumyan.
