The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 16 Jan 2006.
Release Date: 24 January 2006 (Sub Pop)
Download “Not Going Home” (mp3)
He drew another drag from his Lucky Strike. Waldo the Clown was on a break and using this time to get as much nicotine from his filterless cigarettes as he could. It was going to be a long day. Waldo was performing at a 10-year-old’s birthday party. He’d arrived at 11 am and started by shaping balloon animals, throwing confetti, honking his clown horn, and general acting silly. Right now it was 1 in the afternoon and the birthday boy was opening presents. Waldo figured he had enough time to inhale at least 5 Lucky Strikes and today he needed each one of them. Then it would be another 2 or 3 hours of giggly antics before he could get back into The Clownmobile and drive home. It paid the bills and usually he liked the joy clowndome brought to other’s lives. Usually.
Last night he fell asleep listening to The Elected’s new CD, Sun, Sun, Sun. The Elected features Blake Stennett (Rilo Kiley guitarist and co-writer) on vocals, guitar and keyboards. Waldo started listening to the album, and once his thoughts wandering to his former girlfriend, he put the album on repeat and let the layered lushness put him to sleep. When things were good between Waldo and Julia, things couldn’t get any better. But when things took a turn for the worst, they hit bottom.
He woke up, put on his coats of clown makeup, painted a big red smile on his glum and reflective face, and slipped into his baggy, colorful outfit and oversized shoes. Then he started The Clownmobile (actually a station wagon painted in primary colors with “Waldo The Clown” on each side in bubble letters) and drove to little Stevie McManus’s 10th birthday party. When he was “on” he forgot about his life outside of clowning. Now that he was chain-smoking Lucky Strikes, he had some time to contemplate Julia and The Elected album.
Just like Waldo’s mood, Sun, Sun, Sun was full of emotional ups and downs. It had moments of overconfidence (“I can’t lose” repeating itself on “The Biggest Star”) mixed with desperation (“Would you come home, baby, if I take it all back” on “Fireflies in a Steel Mill”). This record has great country style rockers (“The Bank And Trust”), soul influenced tunes (“Old Times” and the long jam of “Biggest Star”), stripped down acoustic based songs (“Sun, Sun, Sun” and “Desiree”), and impressive love songs (“Beautiful Rainbow”).
Sun, Sun, Sun is a complete album, not just a collection of songs with three singles in the mix. The whole thing flows with a cogitative theme of looking back on love and traveling forward. It has strong dynamics. Some songs, such as “Not Going Home” or “Biggest Star,” start out as full band songs and have moments were most of the orchestration drops out. This leaves Stennett’s vocals and one or two instruments before the full band kicks back in. The album is book ended by 2 songs which share lyrics (“Clouds Parting (8:14 am)” and “At Home (Time Unknown)”) and that helps tie the album together and give it a specific beginning and end.
Overall, it sounds like big city Western music. There are lap steel and acoustic guitars mixed with Los Angeles production. At times it sounds like Sub Pop label mates Beechwood Sparks. Few of solos are flashy; most are multiple, simple moving lines of keyboards, slide guitars, and horns overlapped on each other that interplay beautifully. The bass lines are occasionally melodic, but often rely on standard country style playing (switching between root and dominant notes with the intermittent walking line). The drums rely more on the hihat and percussive shakers than the toms.
Waldo related to this album. It allowed him to lament about Julia, his ex-girlfriend, while hiding behind the layers of clown makeup that decorated his face with a massive grin. So he dropped his final Lucky Strike – it was covered with red makeup from that fake smile – to the ground and stamped it out with his jumbo clown shoes and went back to the party. He had to forget about his mournful feelings for Julia and entertain 10 year-old kids.
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