Elizabeth & the Catapult - Taller Children [Album]

Verve Forecast

August 17, 2009, 10:55 PM

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Elizabeth & the Catapult could easily have been the name of a new Disney film and that's exactly what the band sounds like. 'Taller Children', the debut album by Elizabeth Ziman and her two bearded friends Pete Lalish (guitar) and Danny Molad (drums) takes you to the magical world of Elizabeth's moods, thoughts, critical notes and most importantly, the dream world inside her head.

Playing everything containing keys herself, piano, synthesizer, Rhodes, Wurlitzer and glockenspiel included, the album seems to reveal the easy-going, witty and dreamy nature of the singer, which is perfectly reflected in her lyrics too. Most songs show the romantic and melancholic side of the New Yorker, but her wittiness also becomes apparent in the early songs of this album like 'Momma's Boy', 'Taller Children' and 'Rainiest Day of Summer', where she appears almost like a poppy version of Sheryl Crow.

Musically and lyrically the venom leaves the album soon after, and we enter the world of Elizabeth, the happy daydreamer who musically floats somewhere between the mid-sixties and the early nineties. Lost within herself, she talks about apathy ('Apathy'), she looks for a twin ('Complimentary Me') and she finds reality ('The Hang Up' and 'Golden Ink'). In between, she also finds happiness in misery (the excellent 'Hit the Wall'), she finds Leonard Cohen (a beautiful rendition of his 'Everybody Knows') and, like in every Disney film, she finds a happy ending ('Just in Time').

'Taller Children' is not a big chain of musical highlights - though 'Rainiest Day of Summer', 'Hit the Wall' and 'Everybody Knows' are definitely recommended. What Elizabeth and the Catapult do succeed in is creating a coherent sounding, dreamy, soft, pop album, full of typical, everyday life things. The overall sound is very positive and it makes 'Taller Children' a perfect excuse to stay in bed during a lazy Sunday afternoon so you can listen to New Yorks latest melodious soft pop band.

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