As convenient as online shopping has made it to find all the exact records that you’re looking for, perusing a record store can bring gems that you would have otherwise ignored.
Case in point: Song in the Air by Elliott, which I found at Planet Retro in St. Pete while browsing their impressive Punk/Metal section (Kate Bush was in there too, so take “punk/metal” with a grain of salt). Having been tangentially aware of them, I pulled up Spotify and scanned through some of the songs.
What I found was a powerful emo record that gets most of its emotional weight from the intricacy of its songwriting rather than the bombast of its arrangements.
The way I understand it, Elliott’s career followed a pretty typical path for an emo band: release an energetic punk-tinged debut, expand your influences and release a more serious sophomore record, then slow things down for a more mature third record before breaking up (see also: just about every band on Deep Elm).
While Elliott’s second effort False Cathedrals is considered by most to be their best, Song in the Air found me without any context. And once it did, it grabbed me and refused to let me go.
You absolutely do not need to be familiar with Elliott’s other works to appreciate Song in the Air, but some of the context helps. After recording False Cathedrals, Elliott’s bassist and guitarist left. This change in personnel—especially new guitarist Benny Clark’s heavy use of effects pedals—brought a huge change to the group’s sound.
Most of the songs have a much different energy than most emo. Instead of impassioned catharsis or twinkly guitars, Elliott builds elaborate soundscapes of shuffling drums, ambient guitars, keyboard loops, floating vocals, and the occasional string section. The result feels much closer to post rock than punk—which isn’t a completely unique thing for an emo band, but it’s still quite notable.
Opener “Land and Water” swells with an urgency more related to its compositional tension than its tempo. “Carry On” is a breezy pop song that reminds me of why I love gates so much. On the gorgeous “Believe” the guitars melt into the atmosphere so completely that at times it feels like there’s no instrumentation besides the persistent drum groove. “Bleed In Breathe Out” similarly pairs an angular drum beat with a wash of ambience in a way that reaches a climax without exploding. “Song in the Air” finds Chris Higdon’s voice alone with a piano and a gorgeous string section.
The album centerpiece may be “Beijing (Too Many People),” a seven minute epic that reaches all of the same sonic peaks and valleys as the rest of the album. It rides with groove, crashes with chords, and lilts with strings in a way that is more reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky than Jimmy Eat World.
Which isn’t at all to say that this album is stripped entirely of good ol’ fashioned punk rock. Even with its patient composition, “Land and Water” bursts with big, harmony-rich choruses. The instrumental “Drag Like Pull” races through grooving bass lines, effect-heavy guitar riffs, and big drums. “Away We Drift” is dark and brooding, even in its quieter moments. Even “Carry On” has some big wall of sound moments.
But the strength of Song in the Air isn’t the ratio of quiet songs to loud songs, but rather how those elements play with eachother. With the exception of the title track, even the gentlest songs on here feature incredible drum parts. Even the loudest have gorgeous, ambient guitar work. And through it all, Higdon’s voice floats just at top of the atmosphere, just barely avoiding becoming part of the haze itself. It’s a staggeringly beautiful record that packs a punch to rival the most chest beating, throat ripping emo bands without using many of the same tools. And I know it’s maybe not the most conventional place to start with Elliott, but if this is them slowing things down, I don’t know if I want them to speed things up.