Elvis Deluxe, The Story So Far: A Reflective State of Mind
There are two ways to look at The Story So Far, the third full-length from Warsaw-based heavy rockers Elvis Deluxe. The first is that it’s working on a meta-conceptual level to celebrate their 10-year anniversary. The second is that it’s not. In following up 2011’s outstanding sophomore effort, Favourite State of Mind (review here), the four-piece have signed to Metal Mind Productions and constructed an album that spans their career in its eight inclusions. Five tracks up front are brand new. The two that follow were recorded in 2003, at the very beginning of the band, and the last — a finale cover of The Stooges‘ “Search and Destroy” — was recorded in 2006, around the time their first album, 2007’s Lazy (review here). So either The Story So Far is a full-length album chronicling by the band of their own creative growth up to now, or it’s a compilation with some new material and some old — an EP or a short LP with bonus tracks. I’m inclined to read it as the last of those — the short LP with bonus tracks — if only because the first five cuts flow so well together and are consistent in their recordings, whereas the other two and then the last one vary in their take and indeed in their lineup, as they feature now-departed guitarist Mechu, where guitarist/backing vocalist Bert Trust, still currently in the band, is contributing to the first five. With that reading, The Story So Far isn’t nearly as expansive or as open-feeling as was Favourite State of Mind, but at least it makes sense as an album, whereas to present the songs out of chronological order — jumping from 2013 to 2003 to 2006 — cuts into the narrative Elvis Deluxe might otherwise be constructing in their attempt to live up to the album’s title. They couldn’t very well put the new material last, lest it become the bonus tracks, but the fact that it’s up front only feeds into the idea that the band were looking to do more than just charting their creative growth. So even without factoring in the balance of the album’s runtime toward the present — half an hour of the total 41:31 is the first five new songs — the concept doesn’t hold up.
Couple that with the stylistic leaps Elvis Deluxe have made over the course of their decade, and one wonders why they’d decide to include older material in the first place unless they were under a contractual obligation to have an album of a certain length out by a certain time. That’s not to disparage the older material. Both “Out of Life” and “The Hope,” the 2003 tracks, are engaging presentations of genre, nestled somewhere in the sphere of European heavy between the post-Kyuss earlier output of Dozer and the let’s-go-ride-these grooves Lowrider brought to the table subsequently. And a Stooges cover, well done, is never something to complain about. Bassist/vocalist Ziemba still takes a clear Stooges influence if album opener “Your Godfreed” is anything to go by, so it makes sense. But neither past era can do justice to what Ziemba, Trust, guitarist Bolek and drummer Miko are constructing in the present, which takes the garage-rocking Queens of the Stone Age desert spontaneity of Favourite State of Mind and thickens the tones to add a heavy psych undercurrent, and so a clear line is drawn, especially jumping from the 8:51 “Something to Hide” — which closes out the set of new songs — to “Out of Life,” and if it’s to be taken as a complete full-length album, The Story So Far proves uneven, even if the songs that comprise it are as accomplished as they are. Perhaps it’s out of a desire to like it that I’d try to give it an alternate position — that being the short new LP with bonus tracks — but I think what the foursome were able to achieve two years ago on Favourite State of Mind earns that benefit of the doubt. Not to mention, if The Story So Far was intent on giving a narrative flow to Elvis Deluxe‘s career to date, they left out a hell of a chapter in taking nothing from the time around their second album. Maybe there wasn’t anything left, but if the last three tracks on The Story So Far are leftovers from the band’s demo and first full-length days, respectively, what’s to be gained by adding them to the newer songs here, which are more dynamic and which create a flow of their own? Certainly they ground the songs. “Your Godfreed” opens with a linear heavy psych build and languid guitar interplay rife with organic tonality and a live feel, and that’s mirrored in the new-material closer “Something to Hide,” but “No Reason,” which brings Trust to the fore on vocals, is a relatively straightforward clap-along stomper that proffers pro-grade attitude with the smokier voice of the newcomer guitarist.
Perhaps the band’s thinking was that the switch in singers would be enough to throw listeners off, but “Your Godfreed” is engaging enough and hypnotic enough that although “No Reason” strips down the jamming element, by the time it comes on, you’re already in or you’re not. Some of the loose vibes of Favourite State of Mind have tightened up, and “No Reason” shows that as well as does the following “Dark Lovers,” which has a similar low end richness and airy desert rock guitar feel to some of the tracks on that second album, but remains active thanks to the push in Miko‘s drums and the dynamic volume change in the chorus. “Dark Lovers” builds on this feel to open to further jamming and stretch for more than another two full minutes, but where the growth is most evident in the band is that in addition to the richer tonality of the The Story So Far tracks (the new ones), a song like “Face It” doesn’t let go of its memorable hook even as it shifts into a full-on trance-inducing jam. Ziemba is backed by high-pitched “Woo-hoo-hoo”s that give further sense of cohesion to the chorus, and even when they break in the song’s second half, the next refrain isn’t far off. They end “Face It” strong, with driving heavy rock force, and push the swinging swagger into the opening groove of “Something to Hide,” though the chorus takes on a more head-down thrust before opening back into the next fuzzy verse. A second cycle brings Elvis Deluxe to a stop at 2:19, and Miko counts in on the hi-hat to introduce a sprawling psychedelic instrumental jam to end what I’ve come to see as the album proper, guitar leads giving way to a vast expanse of fuzz kept together by steady drumming. Once launched, they don’t return, and “Something to Hide” builds itself up to a sub-wash of improvised-sounding solos and a consistent, descending bassline from Ziemba. They are, in rounding out this batch of their latest tracks, a group of remarkably vibrant jammers, the guitars of Bolek and Bert Trust giving melodic flourish as they map out the route to the song’s final deconstruction, giving way to feedback and spacey effects eventually, but only after Miko has moved to cymbal washes and the bass has disappeared to feedback. The fading noise would make a fitting end, but “Out of Life” kicks in with a riff straight out of Kyuss‘ “Thumb” playbook and “The Hope” follows a similar if more-sizably-riffed course, leaving “Search and Destroy” to offer a familiar rawness from both the band’s and rock and roll’s past.
Obviously the positioning of The Story So Far is something I find questionable, but if that’s the takeaway from this review, let it not be forgotten that I think Elvis Deluxe are underrated heavy rock songwriters and that the first five tracks of this release find them playing out their most developed and realized material yet. It’s in pairing that with the relatively formative other tracks — which, though also well constructed, just don’t fit; likely this wouldn’t be an issue at all had the current band re-recorded the older songs — that gives an uneven feel if taken as part of one whole work. And when not taken as one whole work, when taken as a new release with bonus cuts, The Story So Far thoroughly satisfies and serves well in following up the still-impressive second Elvis Deluxe album. As always in life, it’s all in how you look at it.
Elvis Deluxe, “No Reason” from The Story So Far
Elvis Deluxe on Thee Facebooks
Tags: Elvis Deluxe, Elvis Deluxe The Story So Far, Metal Mind, Poland, The Story So Far, Warsaw
