There's a lot of good music happening all around us, and across Charleston in particular, musicians are coming out with some very cunning and intelligent work. And every now and then, an album will leap forth from the woodwork, grab you by the shoulders and rattle your bones.
On Tuesday, one album did just that, when local record label Hearts & Plugs released "Nude South", the freshman release from Charleston's own trippy croon-rockers, ELIM BOLT.
Opening with the track "Only You", ELIM BOLT's lush sound is brimming with love, longing and missed (or misdirected) opportunities. Singer Johnnie Matthews makes his debut as a true frontman, having previously played with the bands Sequoyah Prep School and Company, and his melancholy baritone carries all the edge of David Byrne, backed with the richness of Roy Orbison. Tempered with a shivering vibrato, Matthews' voice offers a dreamlike quality that immediately gives "Nude South" a nostalgic air of familiarity.
"Field" is a jangling ode to the lonesome youth of South Carolina, while "Farm Kid", the first single from the album, is an apologetic love song with lyrics that moan, "All I want to do / is truly love you / But all I seem to do / is deeply hurt you." With a soaring guitar line laced throughout, "Farm Kid" is easily the album's selling point, but every song on this 7-track record deserves the listener's attention and should be played several times to allow your ears the opportunity to wade through all of the alt-Parsons orchestration. The layers of guitar and the clockwork drumming (the duties of which alternate from one track to the next between Michael McCrea and Ryan Zimmerman), create a vast, swaying field over which dance the delicate harmonies of Matthews and his solid backing vocalist, Amber Joyner.
"Myers Farm" is, upon first listen, a lovely and traditional country tune - but as you sift your way through the lyrics ("My self destructive ways / have thrown my joy away / But on the brightest days of the year / I shine like a chandelier"), it is evident that the beauty and breadth of ELIM BOLT goes much deeper than its cosmic alt-country veneer. In "Alright", the shortest track on the album, the vocals of Matthews and Joyner swell together in the doomy, coercive chorus, while "Batshit Crazy" is an upbeat, drum pounding song about - you guessed it - batshit crazy love.
"Blue Jays", the last track on the album, is at once a dusty torch song and a lamenting lullaby. The most rueful of all of the songs, "Blue Jays"' despondency clings to your soul the way that a thin cotton sheet will stick to warm skin. And this is, perhaps, the timber of ELIM BOLT - naked emotion, haphazardly draped with all the sentience and stoicism of a much older soul.
Or maybe I'm just a sucker for sad songs and reverb...
Website: www.elimbolt.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elimbolt
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