3 keepers
keeper avg .231
Like other bands associated with Elephant 6, Elf Power favors experimentation, aspiration, and immediacy over crafted production, which is something to be overcome if lo-fi music isn't your bag. "Step Through the Portal" and "Into the Everlasting Time" introduce the album in simple, percussion-less fashion, followed by the folk ballad "The Frightened Singers." "The Arrow Flies Close" and "The Bengal Parade" seem especially similar to Neutral Milk Hotel, the latter with some appropriately English folk touches. But nearly another half of the album is in psychedelic garage band mode, somewhere between the relatively polished retro of Olivia Tremor Control and the shrill fury of Neutral Milk Hotel at their punk-iest. The best are the playful stomp of "Icy Hands Will Never Melt Away"****, accented throughout with cheerfully random keyboard blurps and the dreamy title song****, where wistful melodies shine though the gently buzzing layers of guitar. Neither, though, have the power of the propulsive cover of Brian Eno's "Needles in the Camel's Eyes"****, which enhances Eno's brilliant original with a pleasing amount of velocity and spontaneity.
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