You need to try the different modes of the melo minor to hit the right spots. It's final mode, the superlocrian or altered mode, starts with a diminished bit that goes off in a wholetone direction. It has two fundamental chords: augmented and diminished.

I'll agree that the melo minor sounds very happy-ish, but it has qualities and harmonic possibilities you won't find in any other scale.

One of the greatest things I've written is in melo minor, A of the altered mode, although it's technically D# of the overtone (Lydian Dominant) mode because of where it starts. It's a 30-second introductory section to something I haven't completed, or learned to play thoroughly yet. It's also very technical.

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