'Artificial Countrysides' by Elf Power
When it comes to designating the evolution within a band’s discography, “sophomore slump” for the second album is beyond cliché, and “historically troubled” is an obscure joke for the third … but what about the 14th album? Perhaps “just happy to be here” will do.
Elf Power’s 14th LP, Artificial Countrysides, could be designated “surprisingly lively,” although that description has long applied to the music made since the 1990s by the Elephant 6 collective, a loose affiliation of deliberately indie bands that also includes Of Montreal and Apples in Stereo.
This time, Elf Power establishes a soft theme of humanity’s blurring relationship with reality, especially as a digital version of the world suggests itself as the preferred version of the world. That theme finds expression mainly through human-sized arrangements and Andrew Rieger’s gentle folk-rock voice as both singer and writer.
Neither Rieger nor his bandmates eschew the inorganic: synth bass, drum machines, Moog, and Mellotron all make themselves heard crisply in the plain-and-simple production from the band and from Jesse Mangum, who also mastered Elf Power’s previous long-player, 2017’s Twitching in Time.
They do, however, emphasize an analog sensibility: Rieger and Davey Wrathgabar don’t over-complicate their playing, especially on guitars, ancillary keyboardist Laura Carter keeps her Moog in control, and drummer Peter Alvanos doesn’t often push the beat past a steady midtempo.
This sensibility pushes listener focus toward the basics of the songs, and little musical details then stand out, as precisely staggered chords lend XTC archness to the title track, the underdriven fuzz and sitar-like solo of “Metal House” suggest post-Beatles George Harrison, and the string-simulating backdrop of “Dark Rays” echo ELO’s pop side.
Cumulatively, the dozen songs create a humble commentary—not unlike the pastoral Kinks, rendered in pastels— on the reality theme, and leave a mark in the memory that a more strident statement would not have. Is there a designation for that better than “mature later period”?
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Elf Power performs at Shank Hall on July 13.
