Album Review: Elephant Tree, Habits
To put the bottom line first: Elephant Tree‘s Habits is absolutely, unquestionably one of the best heavy rock releases of 2020. A top-five album, if not top-three, and such declaration is made with full awareness that half the year has not yet passed. Then a three-piece, the London-based heavy psychedelic rockers set a high standard with their 2016 self-titled debut full-length (review here), and Habits meets and surpasses the standard on every level. It is perhaps a less stark leap than the band made between their 2014 Theia EP (review here), but in following the course that Elephant Tree laid out, the eight tracks and 43 minutes of Habits expand the band’s scope on a multitude of levels.
This continuing evolution is palpable, whether it’s in the shared harmonies between guitarist Jack Townley and bassist Peter Holland, the inclusion of strings and more complex vocal arrangements on the acoustic “The Fall Chorus,” the welcoming of John Slattery on synth and guitar as he adds to the lushness of the melodies throughout, or the intricacies of rhythm that Sam Hart brings to the drums on a cut like “Bird,” or the earlier shifts between roll and chug of “Faceless.”
Habits finds Elephant Tree on every level a more progressive band, and the substance of their material is writ across each track in performance, arrangement, and purpose. This applies even unto the initially-ponderous intro “Wake.Repeat,” which is a 1:14-long drone that builds into the start of the true opener, “Sails,” but which ends up providing the basis of side A’s symmetry as a droning flourish rounds out “Exit the Soul,” the longest cut on the record at 7:20 and the finale of the first half, which gives way to side B’s own reflective property, as heard in the already-noted acoustics of “The Fall Chorus” that later find answer in album-closer “Broken Nails.”
The hidden message, as it were, sets up a duality between the ethereal and the natural, both seeming to correspond as a part of the entirety of Habits itself; the sound of the band serving as a duality unto itself between airy melody and weight of tone and groove. This conversation is the essence of Habits.
It is a subtlety and depth — conscious or not, whether correctly interpreted here or not — that is simply new ground for Elephant Tree as a band, and it’s brought out with the careful studio guidance of returning-producer/sometimes-bandmate Riley MacIntyre, whose familiarity with what Elephant Tree do and who they are is an essential component. It is crucial to note, however, that as much as the four-piece have grown over the last couple years both through adding Slattery to the lineup and substantial touring, they have maintained and pushed forward their propensity for memorable songcraft.
Thus, as much as “Sails” establishes the tonal and melodic foundations upon which “Faceless” and “Exit the Soul” build in succession, each piece makes an individual mark as well, and even the verses of “Faceless” seem to be a hook. The same is true of Habits‘ second half, as “The Fall Chorus” invites quiet sing-alongs as the lines, “So say we all/Saved from the shelf,” in the chorus offset the kind of minimalist verses also found in “Sails” and “Faceless.”
So too does “Bird” — which moves into an airy midsection jam before its chorus surges back and gives way to a faster, more twisting and winding progression that closes out — maintain its poise and undercurrent of purpose, and after coming to structural ground in the penultimate “Wasted,” the show of reach that is “Broken Nails” moves beyond even the rest of Habits in terms of overall scope, while holding fast to a rhythm in the vocal delivery of its verses that gives a sing-song feel, almost becoming at least in part the lullaby that “Bird” seems intended to be.
Front to back, Habits is gorgeous and resonant in kind, and the growth of melodies into harmonies and the broadening of the band’s sound with Slattery‘s keys — plain to hear on “Exit the Soul” as well as at the outset with “Sails,” and indeed across the rest of what surrounds — only makes their approach come through as more masterful. In crunching, riff-led moments like “Faceless” or even the consuming psychedelic finish of “Wasted” — where the largesse seems so much to be the focal point of their intention — Elephant Tree execute their songs with rare grace, perhaps most present in the quiet beginning stretch of “Broken Nails,” but never really gone.
And that closer, which on its own would situate the band among those bringing increasing progressive flourish to heavier styles, offers some of the slowest and most outwardly dense-feeling crash on Habits, while also pursuing the most atmospheric breadth, and as such, it could hardly be a more appropriate end, in its symmetry with “The Fall Chorus” and also in emphasizing the journey the band has undertaken from the relatively straightforward roll of “Sails” to the far-out place they find themselves at the end, with that lightly-strummed guitar leading them on the final fade. It is one last unabashedly beautiful moment on an album that is rife with them, and for all the potential that Elephant Tree‘s self-titled demonstrated, Habits moves beyond even what one might’ve hoped for in a follow-up.
This sounds like hyperbole, and it is, to be sure, but a work of such creative realization doesn’t happen along every day or every year, and what may seem like an extreme response is nonetheless earned in the material itself. These are not songs to visit and disregard. These are songs to live with. To listen to and be enveloped by. To learn and internalize and engage with over a course of time not defined by a release date, or the end of a year, or whenever. To hear the conversation Elephant Tree are having with their sound and their craft is to understand how special their work here genuinely is, and if the methods of Habits were to become a point of influence for other acts, it would only be an improvement to heavy music as a whole.
Recommended.
Elephant Tree, “Bird” official video
Elephant Tree, “Sails” official video
Elephant Tree on Thee Facebooks
Holy Roar Records on Thee Facebooks
Deathwish Inc. on Thee Facebooks
Tags: Deathwish Inc, Elephant Tree, Elephant Tree Habits, Habits, Holy Roar Records, London, UK
Good god I cant wait for this much longer.
After listening, I can comfortably say your review nails it. I can feel the power in this album.
Thank you.