Review Summary: Post-Desert-Rock?
I feel the best way to truthfully describe the sound of Elementra’s Kelly is to give this hypothetical situation: What if desert-rock act Kyuss and post-rock act Pelican had a baby? Take Kyuss’ general sound – Brank Bjork’s throbbing drums, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri’s spacey instrumental jams, John Garcia’s, ahem, “unique” vocal delivery, and, most importantly, their skull-crushingly heavy riffs – and put that sound into a song structure common to Pelican, which tends to be something very spacey, anticipatory, and very climatic. When this is done you’re left with a sound very familiar to a small act hailing from Salamanca, NY.
The guitars on this record are nothing short of incredible. Crushing distortion plagues most of the album, and where it doesn’t introspective leads and calming melodies sift through the open air. This effectively creates a very quiet-loud contrastive atmosphere not unlike something the Pixies would’ve enjoyed. The overall feel of the guitars switches seamlessly from powerful to comforting, and at times alleviating leads shoot through the wall of distortion to produce a very welcoming sense of dissonance. The pictures painted by the guitars are remarkable, and dynamics are undoubtedly something guitarists Brent and Justin have mastered. In fact, the guitars line up greatly with the somewhat monotonous vocals. And while the vocals aren’t the most noticeable thing here, they definitely add their own little flavor to the overall image.
The bass and drums fail to live up to the dramatics of the guitars, and instead live only to move songs along. The drums are intentionally minimalistic, given enough room to shine for only a few moments in some of the faster-tempo songs. This helps the guitars and vocals artfully deliver a scene to the listener, so there’s really no problem with the drums anywhere on the record. The lo-fi tone of the record gives the drums a very warming 90s feel to them – something that really gives the songs an inviting punch. The bass, however, unfortunately comes nowhere near the tastefulness of its rhythmic counterpart. Instead it lies in the very bottom of the mix, drowned out by the immensity of the other instruments. The only instance where the bass is clearly audible is during the first half of “Sunny & 72”, a slow and happy jam, and “Dweller on the Threshold”, the album’s closer.
The amount of variety in songwriting is spectacular. No song overstays its welcome – something that both Pelican and Kyuss have been guilty of doing in the past. The songs are somewhat long but they climb a very steady ladder of intensity, with occasional dropouts for a calming atmosphere, which all eventually leads to an exciting climactic rush that the average GY!BE fan would love. Each song has its own personality, from the devilish “Deranged” to the sleepiness of “Like Baby’s Dreams”. Each song carries its own weight on the record with many little fills and quirks that sit and wait for the listener to discover. In fact, the whole album is just a continuation of the plethora of emotions people can feel, all described through wailing guitars, responsible drums, intriguing vocal work, and a lack for any sort of clear lyrical content.
