aaamusic | On 02, Jan 2011

Yes, yes, let’s get this out the way first: Elliot Minor are a teen girl orientated band of the kind that develops rabid and “misunderstood” fanbases aged between 13 and 19 who agonise over how their weddings to the singer will go. Right, now that’s mentioned, let’s look at the music, shall we? Because Elliot Minor have momentarily shelved their pseudo-classical bombast to offer up not just an acoustic album, but an acoustic reworking of previous album ‘Solaris’.

Beginning with as much gloomy atmospherics as anything, there are hints of Danny Elfman and The Exorcist theme in the tinkling piano ‘The Dancer’, as the ominous melodic drive throbs and swells beneath plaintive vocals. There is indeed a stripped-back feel here, made explicit by the presence of choppy acoustic guitar and finger-picked melodies beneath the vocal harmonies. ‘I Believe’ picks up where its predecessor left off, doing “this is an acoustic album” to death with the tinny strumming of an acoustic guitar, leaving the intrigue to the admittedly beautiful piano melodies. The vocals are emotive and bleating in the modern emo-pop-punk style typified by many an American alt-rock band, but when placed in quieter surroundings, they reveal little hook beyond trite lyricism and some heavy harmonic interplay.

‘Electric High’ is notably less Americanised that much of Elliot Minor’s material, with a debt to Britpop indie rock in its bouncy rhythms which unfortunately don’t lift the song so much as place it in another different rut, but beneath the contrived songwriting, there are flickers of enjoyability in the tumbling piano melodies and there is no denying the singalong quality of the non-threatening chorus. The white-toothed singalong aspect rises again with the undeniably pretty and well-arranged title track ‘Solaris’. The orchestration and pacing of the instruments is indeed worthy of praise, but the whole thing feels somehow sanitised and doesn’t quite compel the listener despite the musical efforts.

Suspiciously enough, there is a heavy synth presence on ‘Coming Home’ in whooshing atmospherics. The lush arrangement implies a strong Beatles influence, but the demon of autotune and poor electronic instrumentation prevents this from being a sparkling sugar hit of alt-pop rock indulgence that it begs to be, instead feeling simultaneously over- and under-done, which is a shame because this could easily have been the standout track in its opulence. As for ‘Shiver’, the layered instrumentation and funked-out flamenco/folk/classical dance feel almost trumps the irritating processed vocals to produce something listenable, but the sheer extravagance and obvious computer magic does beg the question of how this can be called an “acoustic” track, and the spacey effects simply grate too much, especially in the bridge. However, it is another lush and extravagant pop rocker that provides one of the most listenable tracks as the emoting of ‘Better Than The Courtroom’ blends the band’s tendency to become heavily overwrought with their customary polyphonic rocking out on piano, guitar and vocals. Pop ballad blends into emo with a real sense of guilty pleasure. The tones of the acoustic guitar’s strum is a hitch in its obtrusiveness, but I would say that this is one of the few tracks I would voluntarily listen to repeatedly due to its smooth, accessible melodicism.

In direct contrast is the bleating indifference of ‘All Along’ and ‘Discover’. No matter how heavenly-tuneful and intimately stripped-down the verses become, or how much the string sections contrive to pull at the heartstrings, the songs simply feel too overdone to be emotive in this setting and indeed too trite to appeal at all. And yes, the closer of the source album: ‘Let’s Turn This Back Around’ is as overbaked as ever, with cliché lyrics to end all clichés, and soaring emotive codas galore.

This release adds on two bonus tracks: the slowdance balladry of ‘Blinding Light’ which blends slightly irritating boyband charm with jangling and oddly ominous guitar sounds that recall a scrubbed-out Radiohead crossed with The Beatles at their most radio-friendly, and ‘Glorious’, a musically inventive cover that really plays up Elliot Minor’s selling point as the give it the full and considerable chamber music pop-rock working over to create something undeniably attention-grabbing in its opulent tumbling piano and cushiony string arrangements.

Elliot Minor are a band whose sound is indeed unique in its pairing of the lush with the angsty. Their sound is one that wears razorblade hairgrips in its squeaky-clean locks while playing rather fetching pop on a gleaming piano. However, this release feels almost totally pointless, as stripped of its complexity their music is shown up as largely trite and unremarkable. Perhaps releasing the bonus tracks and one or two of the better acoustic versions as an EP would have been better, as an entire album redone acoustically, especially given that in lieu of the band’s mask of bombast we are handed little more than cliché, means that this repetitive and hard-to-love release simply feels like an exercise in parting fans from their cash.

Author: Katie H-Halinski