As you may gather from a band who kick off their album launch gig with a George Gershwin cover, morphing into yet another bunch of Queens Of The Stone Age wannabes is hardly likely to be on the agenda when it comes to the making of your debut album.
Cork quintet ELEPHANT are said band, and no, their debut album "In The Moon" bears scant relation to "Rated:R" or any other contemporary guitar album you care to mention, come to that. Bearing in mind that the band's average age is 20, their folk-flecked jazzy pop is incredibly sophisticated and they are a kazillion miles away from what any of their contemporaries are doing in the currently fertile Cork scene.
This can be both a strength and weakness where "In The Moon" is concerned. Undoubtedly, the quality of the musicianship is largely second to none, and while I'm loathe to pick out individuals, it's difficult not to note singer Catherine's lovely, seductive voice and bassist Keith's virtuosity when he switches to violin on several tracks here. Also, the depth and quality of Michael John McCarthy's songs suggests Elephant's future is rosy: something that anyone who has heard their newer songs would struggle to dispute.
This writer's a little uneasier by the band's overtly jazz-based tunes, though, and would question the wisdom of sequencing "In The Moon" with the three obviously jazz-based tunes right at the start. These tracks provoke a range of emotions in your reviewer as well. "If You're Lucky You'll End Up With Someone You Don't Hate" has a Morrissey-esque title, and its' jazzy shuffle manages to be bright, world-weary and cynical all at once. It's alright, and "Maybe Tomorrow" - built on a deliciously lazy bassline and Catherine singing surprise lyrics like: "maybe tomorrow you'll slap me in the face and tell me go the fuck away" - can't fail to raise a smile on your reviewer's mush. Sadly, sandwiched between these is the album's nadir in "Eve Versus The Snake", which is smug, stylistically contrived and too much of a pastiche to sound anything but anachronistic.
Still, let's not dwell on that too long because much of what follows is worthy of your consideration. All of the remaining songs are at least pretty good and in two cases are approaching greatness.
Indeed, apart from the likeable frustration of the witty "Punch A Hole" and - at a push - the lovely, resigned after hours piano ballad "Goodnight", these songs don't slam down too hard on the jazz accelerator, and sound more like Elephant being themselves, which to these ears is definitely a good thing.
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There's lots to recommend here. For starters, try the gorgeously gentle folk harmonies of "Nothing Is The Best That I Can Do"; or the Michael John-sung "Pop Song", with its' cool, Dylan-ish harmonica solo and sneaky lyrical references to both The Handsome Family and Richard Thompson. Ironically, talking of this writer's favourite bearded folk-rock geezer, the excellent "Gordion Knot" features a sassy vocal very much in the Linda Thompson mould from Catherine. It's also the one song on the album where Elephant get a real bouncy groove going: something this reviewer would like to hear more of.
For me, though, the album's duel highpoints are the two broadly Americana-based songs, although as ever that term can be applied loosely to what are superb, heartbreaking pieces of work in their own right. Both "Rocking Chair" and the death-knell closer "Marianne" are duets between pianist Ciaran and Catherine, and both are consistently great. The first has a moving, downbeat kinda vibe, almost Cowboy Junkies, while the latter is in the sparse, barren vein of Smog and features that killer last gasp chorus of "I don't think we'll see another summer." It's a long way from the almost '30s-based sounds that open the album, but overall the eclecticism is satisfying enough to succeed across 40 minutes.
"In The Moon", then, is a thoughtful, well-crafted debut from a band who are truly different from the norm. They require a determined leap of faith from anyone who likes their music raw and groove-based, but their warmth, intelligence and tunefulness ultimately wins you over. They also have the best part of a double album's worth of fine new tunes waiting in the wings, so make sure to keep Elephant under your microscope.
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