The fact this album’s been produced by Alan Parsons seems to be one of its big selling points, but this seems to do the band, London four-piece Electric Litany rather an injustice. It’s clear from the material and the way they play the songs, that Electric Litany have dug deep in trying times (to which the title refers) and emerged with an album that’s got depth and strength and would do so regardless of who was with them in the studio.
There’s no question as to the ambition or scope of the album. The title track is a monumental swirling prog epic of Oceansize proportions.
For the most part, the soaring vocals are swathed in reverb and swamped by effects and the band showcase a taste post-punk influenced sound with leanings toward rich textures and a big, full found.
Motorik drums low in the mix cut through to propel ‘Hold Fast to Dreams’, before a mystical guitar arabesques swirl over a cavernous shoegaze drone on ‘The Soul Remembers Everything’ to conjure neogothic dramatics.
The piano plod of ‘Vanish’ is the album’s only real dud: vaguely Sigur Ross meets [insert generic Joy Division citing post punk revival act here], it’s sighingly dull and sentimental, but in contrast, ‘Name’ is a surge of swirling synths that drape over a tetchy skeletal guitar with strong echoes of Interpol and Editors. ‘Father of Ecstasy’ also follows this vein, and sounds not just a little like Joy Division’s ’24 Hours’ crossed with the same band covering Blondie’s ‘Atomic’, down to the spectral guitars and Hook-like bass runs. That might sound like a great sales pitch, but it’s actually a cracking tune, simultaneously bleak and exhilarating. They’re certainly masters of haunting atmospherics and aching elegies.
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Electric Litany - Enduring Days You Will Overcome Online
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