Elevant - There Is A Tide
9/10
Elevant’s previous album Dreamface was unexceptional, a throwback to the early ‘90’s alternative scene. On third LP There Is A Tide” those grunge influences are still in place but the songwriting has gone improved immensely and there are distinct hints of the underground of both the 60s and today. I’m Only Falling Apart could be Maximum R’n’B period Pete Townsend playing with Mudhoney. Audience might be Pearl Jam jamming with Sunn 0))) on speed. If Cobain wrote a song for Earth, it could be Home Is Dead. The acoustic Last Man Standing is more introspective, with tasty Michael Chapman style finger-picking. The pace picks up again with Jane’s Addiction colliding with Therapy? on both We Eat Our Young and the electric Last Man Standing (Reprise). Pink // Pond has the funk of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the guitar of The Creation. The closing duo of Hand Over Fist and Dead Skin are the highlights: the former skips from grunge to ‘60’s girlband territory before crashing into Godflesh-style industrial, the latter builds to a monumental bastard of a rocker. Elevant’s influences are never hard to find but they have found their own identity and I am liking this a helluva lot. Someone bring ‘em to NAC or the Owl pronto, please.
9/10
