EL VY
Return to the Moon (4AD)
Featuring lead singer Matt Berninger of the National and Menomena’s Brent Knopf, EL VY prove that they are somehow less than the sum of their parts on their debut album, Return to the Moon.
Gone are the somber anthems and melancholy epics of Berninger’s former band, traded instead for synth-driven pop beats and light-hearted nonsensical lyrics like: “Scratch the ticket with a leg of a cricket and I got triple Jesus / Cash it in for a Siamese twin at the family firing range”.
The album opens with the “Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, with Crescendo)” which sounds like it was written specifically for a car commercial. It’s one of many songs on the album to feature a reference to the seminal SoCal post-rock band Minuteman, however, their musical influence on the album is suspiciously absent.
Instead, what we’re given is a rather boring collection of millennial lounge music.
“I’m the Man to Be” sounds like it could be Beck on ketamine, while the highly polished “Sleeping Light” sounds like it should be selling vodka, not cars.
Knopf’s weirdo synths and production, which helped set Menomena apart from its indie rock counterparts, gives EL VY’s otherwise rather ordinary compositions some interesting moments, but too often comes off as gimmicky.
Sadly, there’s too little here for Knopf’s efforts to save.
Rating out of 5: ★★1/2
