Elke
Divine Urge
Congrats Records
Elke (Kayla Graninger) is a multi-instrumentalist, model and artist from Nashville. This is her second album, a complex set of synthpop tracks which hops between genres inspired as much by rock ‘n’ roll and prog as by modern pop / hip-hop and r’n’b. Her voice is a primary weapon here, capable of a breathy Amanda Lear-esque seductiveness, and just as capable of a scream, or more avant-garde interpretive creations.
Surprisingly though, the team behind this is from a lineage of more straightforward rock – she’s worked here with her partner and producer Zac Farro of Paramore, and Hayley Williams is drafted in on vocals for one track. Rapper Carter Ace joins in on standout single Insect Song. The opening title track sets the style and tone, a thumping bass line and staccato vocal takes us into a dream world, a dreaming, a return to nature as Elke has a divine urge to “drive off the jetty” and “sluice mud on my naked body”: into a fuzzy, grunged up chorus “racing to disorder, but I like it”, a kind of self-destructiveness which comes from a desire to reunite with the natural world, and the disorder stemming perhaps from her own recently diagnosed OCD and autism, a commonality with myself which might explain my connection with the song.
Enchanté again couples a spoken, poetic and chant like chorus with a highly stylised chorus, reminiscent of St. Vincent’s earlier work. Watching the video, with Elke in green, leaf covered costuming, there’s a clear connection to Kate Bush’s Dreaming period. The half-heard vocals in the chorus of Hide in Heaven, and slightly off key singing in the bridge also bring to mind elements of The Ninth Wave. One Fake Sedative seems to be about a mental battle with “the blackness” to which is addressed “You’re not as vast as you thought and I will soon forget it, and re-remember it.” This attack on the black dog is anthemic, ending with a blissful chaos. Standard Information seems to be about problems with both communication and fact-finding in a world of fractured personal interactions: “I asked for a sign, what did I get? Standard information”, the feeling perhaps that everyone else knows what you don’t: ‘I needed answers, no one said a peep?"You should know this by now," they say doubtlessly’.
The single Insect Song is a whirlwind of hooks, a duet with Carter Ace and by far the most clearly commercial sounding song: “Your eyes tell me all I need”, the great lyric “The word perfect exists to let us know it doesn’t”, semantic lyrics and semiotics bound together in an examination of relationships.The second half of the album is more introspective, less frenetic, with Masters of Love using a bluesy melody and riff to build to a almost religious feeling statement, if we all find new ways to behave we could all “be masters of love”. This leads to the reflective sadness of You Can’t Come With Me as the singer moves onto a new part of her life, a ballad inspired by Mitski, Eilish and other champions of sadness.
Wild Lucy is a sweet, water-bound ode to an odd friendship, “Lucy in the stars she was my swan…”, maximal with strings and electronics, but a very 80s guitar and a style harking back to 70s singer-songwriters. There’s a similar retro feel, harking even further back, to the brass sound of Back to the Beginning, a short skit to bring us to the end. Butterfly Escort is a beautiful ballad, a similar hymn to nature which we started the album with, bubbling electronics drifting away until interrupted by a sing-song, again a tribute to nature, “We are all connected..”
Elke is a phenomenal talent, able to create immersive worlds in her music, inspired as much by Eno as by Billie Eilish, experimental but able to craft effective pop music, with a stunning visual sense as well. While this album may not carry the energy of its opening through to the end, it’s clear that she has a great deal to say and massively creative and interesting ways to say it.
