album #3

sunlight makes me paranoid (elefant)

The title says it all- a night-time album with a touch of anxiety and preoccupation. They fit right in to the New York sound of the early/mid aughts, the sexy, subdued instrumentation, the present bass, the tight voice with a European curve. They're the Strokes but a little smoother with the ladies. Or Maroon 5's hot, mysterious cousin. It's an album pretty much entirely about women- a collection of seductions and recollections, downtown at night.

A lot of this record takes me to a particular time frame, the late summer nights driving around Texas, between freshman and sophomore year. A lot of the other tracks are rather dull or drippy, they never really hooked into me. I gotta say though, the album's opening three tracks have always really hit me, I've always loved them and how they fit together. "Make Up" is the sexiest, sweetest song about love- 'get up and dance around the room, my eyes are on you'- christ I love that lyric. To live that moment, everything it implies… it really is a romantic ideal. "Now That I Miss Her" is sad and awesome, it's a good one, and I've always considered the cliffhanger, 'this is her answer,' to in fact be answered by the third song, "Misfit." The best track on the album, Elefant's breakthrough song. Then the rest of the record drifts between stylishly okay and a little bit drippy, then closes with Ester, a song I've always enjoyed. It has the steady, low pulse of most of the tracks on the album, but something in the lyrics- "and the way I tried to win you, I was being young," has always kept with me. Having first heard this record as a young man, a nostalgic guy, it has struck me as a good line, a relevant sentiment.

Reading a little about the band before I wrote the review, I noticed that the leader of Elefant grew up an Iggy Pop fan, and I can certainly hear in this record, a certain rhythm- that lowness, the sultriness- that calls to mind a cleaner, better produced, modern take on the Bowie/Pop collaborations. It's interesting, after reading "Bowie In Berlin," and reading about the far-reaching influence of his output then, to pick up hints of it now. The Strokes, Interpol, Elefant- all grandchildren of Heroes and The Idiot, in one way or another.