By virtue of being comprised of tracks recorded in 2013, 2006 and 2003, Elvis Deluxe‘s latest outing, The Story So Far (review here), is by its nature somewhat uneven. The good news, however, is that the newest material the Warsaw four-piece have to offer — the stuff recorded in 2013, duh — is the best of the bunch, and its from that most recent batch that the track “No Reason” comes. Drenched in attitude and heavy rock boogie, it’s a song more or less tailor-made for attention as a single, guitarist Bert Trust taking a lead vocal spot and providing a punkish gravel over an engaging stomp.
Elvis Deluxe is comprised of Trust, guitarist Bolek, bassist/vocalist Ziemba and drummer Miko, and though The Story So Far— also their debut on Metal Mind — doesn’t stand up in my mind to the gloriously loose feel that the band was able to hone on their previous 2011 outing, Favourite State of Mind(review here), that’s more because of the mix of recording styles than the quality of the songs themselves. They’re worth checking out, is what I’m saying in my roundabout, overtired way. And if you haven’t had occasion to do that as yet, I thought posting the video — watch for the twist at the end with the living-it-up young lady who appears throughout — might be a good way to go.
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 BertTrust, still currently in the band, is contributing to the first five. With that reading, The Story So Farisn’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 Mindand 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 Farproves 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 Mindearns that benefit of the doubt. Not to mention, if The Story So Farwas 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 Farare 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.
