Album of the Decade: Elder, Lore

elder-lore

[NOTE: This is not the results of the best of the 2010s poll, which is ongoing. Please add your choice/choices there if you haven’t, and thanks.]

This has been an incredibly difficult choice. It’s something I started really thinking about in the middle of last year, and even this morning I was back and forth on what my final pick would be. You know what sealed the deal for Elder‘s Lore (review here) as album of the decade?

I put it on.

And it wasn’t two minutes into the sweeping 10-minute opener “Compendium” before the deal was sealed. The then-Massachusetts-based then-trio (hey, things change) of guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto — the latter of whom recently parted ways with the band — issued Lore in 2015, and it was album of the year at the time as well. I recall agonizing over that choice as well, but in the end, my reasoning is much the same now as it was then, in that I genuinely don’t think there is another full-length record released between 2010 and 2019 that works at the level of craft Elder do on Lore while at the same time being so purely forward thinking.

Lore‘s release through Armageddon Shop and Stickman Records followed 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here) on MeteorCity and felt long in the making, but the jump in sound was even further. To compare the approach of the two records, some of the differences are superficial. Elder‘s penchant since their 2008 self-titled debut (discussed here) has always been for composing songs by marrying parts together and creating a flow based more on movements than traditionalist verses and chorus. I admit there are times when I personally find this hilariously maddening, but their work still finds ways to stand pieces out and make them memorable. It was true on Dead Roots Stirring and Lore alike, but the presentation and the mission were fundamentally different between the two.

It’s a question of clarity. Where Dead Roots Stirring was (and is, if you’re listening in the present tense) more rooted in heavy rock distortion and production, the Justin Pizzoferrato-recorded Lore certainly had those elements at play — the post-guitar-as-mellotron-orchestra sweep apex of the 15-minute centerpiece title-track being a riffy example, as well as the swinging rush earlier in “Compendium,” the finish in “Spirit at Aphelion,” etc. — but the album is much more defined by DiSalvo‘s shimmering guitar and its progressive edge. It is a clean sound. And what’s more, four years since Lore came out and listening to it, my head is still spinning. I mean it. You would have to sit with a flowchart for each track and measure out where one part ends and the next starts. And when you’re done doing that, once you have all the crescendos and twists and winding progressions measured and calculated and so on plotted, you’ll still only have one piece of Lore‘s puzzle configured, because in addition to its blindsiding, careening movements, there’s the melody.

elder (Photo by Ryan Boyd)

With the prescient experimental play at the start of “Deadweight” and even in the cascade wash that emerges in that track’s second half — a glorious noise bath that leads to a galloping end that at the time seemed outshined by the title-track before it and now stands as all the more testament to Lore‘s enduring quality — or in the lead and languid verse atop the rolling beginning of second cut “Legend,” Elder unfolded a new level of accomplishment in melodic reach instrumentally and vocally. With Donovan and Couto in rhythmic lockstep as the sure foundation of DiSalvo‘s tonal breadth, the three-piece used traditional power trio dynamics to pull tradition apart at the seams. And for an album that’s an hour long and begins at such an immediate rush with the opening guitar figure of “Compendium” daring the listener to keep pace, it still remains eminently listenable and enjoyable because of the work the melody does in carrying across all its many changes. Along with Couto‘s essential swing, it’s the melody most responsible for tying Lore together and uniting its five component tracks as a single work.

As the only song under 10 minutes long (it’s 9:28), “Deadweight” allows itself the indulgence of a little classic heavy rock soloing, but even in that, it takes its own approach. Consider the penultimate cut at four minutes in. DiSalvo, shredding. Donovan is holding down the central groove with Couto punctuating righteously. Then, at 4:14, they pivot, and it’s so quick and so sharply executed that you don’t even realize what you’re in is a transitional part and that 20 seconds later, they’re going to be off on the “next riff” along the song’s building course. Lore is rife with these moments, which are the kind of thing that, if they were on someone else’s record once, they’d make the whole album better. With Elder, they’re just another part on the way to the next part. It continues to be an astonishing work.

Of course, Lore closes with the 10:32 “Spirit at Aphelion,” and though one hardly thinks of any part of the 2LP as being understated — it is not without its indulgent stretches — the ending fadeout seems to ride the tension of its final riff in such a way as to hint at more to come. One almost expects the song, which is a victory lap in summarizing what precedes and certainly plenty dynamic in its stretch prior, to fade back in for another round, even after it’s over. But the end is, in fact, the end, and it would be just two years before Elder turned around and offered Reflections of a Floating World (review here) as the inevitable follow-up and next forward step in their ongoing progression. By then, the impact of Lore was already being felt in the work of other bands, and the ensuing two years, as well as the reception to the fourth long-player and their concurrent touring, have only seen Elder‘s influence spread further.

I could have made any number of choices here. But in looking back over the last decade, no single release seemed to encapsulate a vision of what heavy rock and roll could be in the way Lore did, and no single band have manifest their vision in way Elder have. It is an epicenter from which they and heavy rock as a whole will continue to grow.

Honorable Mention

Like I just said, I could’ve made any number of choices here. When I went to bed last night, it was planning to write about Om, so there you go. We’ll do the poll results early in January, but here are a few more of my own picks for album of the decade contention:

  • OmAdvaitic Songs
  • YOBClearing the Path to Ascend
  • Uncle Acid and the DeadbeatsBlood Lust
  • ClutchEarth Rocker
  • GraveyardHisingen Blues
  • High on FireSnakes for the Divine
  • All Them WitchesLightning at the Door

I’ll leave it there so as not to spoil anything for the poll to come, but yeah, there are plenty of noteworthy contenders. If you have one or 50 you’d like to add, please feel free to leave a comment here, or, of course, hit up the decade-end poll and drop a list there. Either way, your thoughts and consideration are always appreciated.

And thanks for reading.

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4 Responses to “Album of the Decade: Elder, Lore

  1. mat walker says:

    100% agree, I’m big fan of Elder.

    Only one other album can compete at the level of “Elder – Lore” and it’s “Psychonaut – Unfold the God Man”.

    I haven’t heard much talk about them even though their album from 2018 is a rare gem.

  2. Chen says:

    I couldn’t agree more. I consider Lore to be one of the best albums ever released. No matter how many times I listen to it, never a dull moment, it never gets tired. I’m really looking forward to hearing what they are recording now. I expect it will be vastly different from lore, but if the postwax releases is any indication of the direction they are headimg with their next LP, bring it on! ??

  3. David J Brown says:

    Excellent choice and a well written insightful piece. I’m an old head whose roots are firmly planted in the rock of the 1970s. This was the album that made me start down the rabbit hole of modern era heavy/stoner/prog/etc. music. I probably don’t listen to it often enough because I’m so busy discovering other good stuff, but it definitely stands out. Excellent musicianship and their own sound for sure…the two main hallmarks of what makes a band one of my favorites. Cheers.

  4. Danthemanrocks says:

    Thanks. I never really gave this album much of a chance, for reasons I don’t remember. So I’ll put that right. I agree about Om. According to iTunes, which is pretty much the only way I’ve been listening to music this decade, several songs from Advaitic Songs are by far the most played from this decade — maybe write about that again anyway :-)

    Of the many albums from 2010s to celebrate, I’d like to flag up Dinosaur Jr’s Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not for some attention. I think they really killed it on that album. The two particularly strong Barlow tracks, especially the gorgeous Love Is…, really help make it for me. J has had a strong decade, with three superb solo albums and he’s been on great form live judging from the youtube vids I’ve seen. Dinosaur Jr are the only band with one album in my fav of the decade from each of the last four decades, which is pretty damn impressive especially as I wouldn’t see myself as a particular Dino Jr fan!

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