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THE HORRIBLE CROWES - ELSIE [ALBUM]

Side One Dummy Records

by LauraPhoto, September 8th, 2011 and has been Read 1467 times.
Last Edited by: Jack Stovin September 9th, 2011.

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Brian Fallon is the ultimate modern day musician. Having enjoyed the success of three Gaslight Anthem records, constant touring and sharing the festival stages this year with the likes of Bob Dylan, Foo Fighters and Coldplay, you would think he would be settled on taking a breather to put his feet up. However, Fallon has other plans. The Horrible Crowes is his brilliant new side project with his good friend and guitar technician Ian Perkins, announced earlier in the year. His ideas were to explore the darker side to his songwriting, experimenting with soul, blues and other concepts which wouldn't fit with the alternative grungey-punk sound of The Gaslight Anthem. The product of Brian's imagination (I feel obliged to call him by his first name) is the spine-tingling Elsie, twelve tracks of musical genius, a whole lot of soul and Fallon's place in history as one of the greatest living songwriters.

A lot of people may ask what the main differences are between The Horrible Crowes and The Gaslight Anthem. Elsie is a lot more direct and personal compared to the metaphorical and story-like lyrics in Gaslight's songs. It's also a hell of a lot darker, expressive and really the beating heart of Brian Fallon and the relatively unknown Ian Perkins (not for much longer). I cannot even begin to express how brilliant this album is. Before I try, I'll just say one thing – it's definitely my favourite album of the year, and it's only September.

Having released two tracks “Behold The Hurricane” and “Black Betty & Moon,” I wasn't really sure what kind of sound The Horrible Crowes were going for, with 'Behold The Hurricane' sounding a little too Gaslight-esque, and 'Black Betty & The Moon' just not clicking with me.

What a difference it makes when you listen to the album back to front. The calm and soothing opener “Last Rites” is short yet beautiful, the perfect beginning to an album full of fresh and inspiring tracks. Leading into the poetic and moving “Sugar;” the tones of the bass and guitars are shimmering, with Fallon's voice sending shivers down your spine.

The album is split between the heart-wrenching, bittersweet songs such as “Cherry Blossoms,” a slow and sombre effort about love lost. Fallon and Perkins' lyrics are strong and passionate, “Blood on my teeth from just what they did here, snow tumbling down on the ground, and me stumbling out of my heart, finding cherry blossoms on the hood of my car.” There's few artists who can draw you in with pure emotion, and this song really shows why The Horrible Crowes hold that ability through their music. “Ladykiller” follows on the sombre side of the album, Fallon's underrated rough vocals executed perfectly to a song that ticks all the boxes to a heartfelt soul song.

We get a lesson in blues in the raging, rough and raw “Mary Ann,” the most passionate and energetic song on the album. The gritty vocals are some of Fallon's best recorded to this current day, and rings all the bells of a certain Tom Waits. If you're anything like me, you'll be nodding your head, shouting out “MARY ANN!” and air-guitaring to what are some of the best sounding guitar distortion tones heard recently. In fact, I will go as far as calling this my favourite song of the year so far. It's just that good.

Listen to "Mary Ann" here:

http://soundcloud.com/sideonedummy/mary-ann/

Fast-paced, spine tingling soul is how I'd describe “Go Tell Everybody,” Fallon's rough vocals perfectly in-twine with the rhythmic overdriven guitars, whereas the 50's-tinged “I Witnessed A Crime” has a tasty bass riff, brilliant organs and beautiful metaphorical lyrics such as “and in this dream I had, my screams were baby's breath, I watched her steal the air, right from the atmosphere.” “Crush” is the most straight and honest song, despite the album battling with the hardships of lost love, this deals with the ideal love, and the intimate aspects which come with it.

Listening to “Behold The Hurricane” once again, the track is heartfelt and strangely upbeat , and has one of my favourite lines on the record, “Be still my heart, I age by year at the mention of your name.” The lyrics are somewhat misleading, tinged with darkness to a major-key guitar effort, something I've grown to love about Fallon's songwriting, the contradiction between music and words. The romantic poetry in “Black Betty & The Moon” highlights the essence of unrest, with loneliness and desperation being some of the emotions felt in this song.

The bittersweet aspect returns in closing tracks “Blood Loss” and “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together,” two candlelit beauties, the bearing souls of Fallon and Perkins. The delicate, whispered words of Fallon in “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together” are haunting, as The Horrible Crowes confront life and death head on, with what is one of the most beautiful and fitting closing tracks of a record full of different angles on life, love and destruction.

Rather than focus on this being a “Brian Fallon solo record,” which I'm sure many will perceive it to be, half the credit has got to go to Ian Perkins, who has proven he is more than just a guitar technician. Between the two of them, they have created some of the most creative and heartfelt songs that I have heard in a long while. Whereas The Gaslight Anthem have a brilliant dynamic to their grunge-filled Punk Rock Sound, the soul you feel in this record is un-comparable to any bands out there today. There are few albums which you will grow up remembering to be good, but even fewer remembering to be great, and this is one piece of gold you will never forget.