Elan London Express
Elan is an astonishingly talented singer-songwriter
originally from Guadalajara. She landed a few years ago in the
fertile musical landscape of Southern California and quickly
made a name for herself by being the first internationally
successful Latin American independent artist as well as the
first female Latina to begin her career with an English language
album written completely on her own.
That 2003 debut album, Street Child , revealed an outstanding
assortment music that was a kind of semblance of Bob Dylan,
Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt,
Martina McBride, Cat Stevens and a few other notable influences,
yet carried within a refreshing originality all its own. Elan's
voice proffered a husky and resonant articulation, with
captivating songwriting skills that went beyond the simple
verse-verse-chorus vibes of most modern divas; Elan was
something different entirely - a powerful songwriter whose songs
were intensely honest works that were raw and full of soul. She
wasn't just singing songs - she had something to say, and said
it with a relentless intensity. The album was full of confident
passion, songs that surged forth in insistent tsunamis of
dramatic provocation.
Her second album, London Express, goes even further in its
songwriting and its performance. One review I read aptly
described it as "gorgeous, soulful, and empathetic blues rock,"
which I feel puts it very well. I will add only that it is by
far one of the best albums I've heard all year. I am simply
blown away by both of these albums, which carry an impact and an
import one rarely encounters in today's pop musical landscape.
London Express finds its roots in the music of The Beatles,
which Elan has described as the "only band that really changed
everything." Elan has adopted rhythmic patterns and textures and
recording techniques from the British Invasion of the 1960s and
crafted her own tribute to British rock, yet stamped with her
own unique signature and poetry. This is far from pastiche
songwriting; this is an outstanding record in its own right, a
collection of stories and impressions and sensations that meld
together with the persuasive cadences that made Street Child
such a stimulating work.
Some songs are more overtly Beatlesque than others; such as "The
Fool's Life," a clear homage and follow-up to The Beatles' "The
Fool on the Hill" with the same fluted intro, or the
Harrison-like guitar solo in "Nobody Knows." Vocal choruses on
songs like "Be Free," the album's first single, reflect that of
Beatles songs like "Rain;" while the riff and the concluding
choruses of "Get Your Blue" are clear reinterpretations of the
format of "Hey Jude's" chorale denouement. "Nobody Knows" opens
and closes with an audio clip from an episode of THE TWILIGHT
ZONE, and there are a few examples of reversed recordings
included in the mix. London Express is more Lennon-like in its
reliance more upon rhythm than melody; meaning that it doesn't
trounce up and down the scales with the vigor of a McCartney
melody; but its through its rhythmic strength that each song
assumes its dramatic power and attractiveness.
The overall dynamic of London Express remains with Elan's
personal passion for impressionistic and expressionistic
storytelling, ranging from the brutally honest ("The Devil in
Me," "Don't Worry") to the purely joyful (the rousing "The Big
Time," and the sublimely poignant "Sweet Little You"). She
describes loves and losses with an elegiac candor that is both
disarming and profound, and these emotions are embodied within
musical measures and colors that are thoroughly alluring and
enticing. In the final analysis, it is as much the musicality of
the album as it is the songwriting and singing of Elan that make
London Express as inviting a recording as it is.
Street Child, incidentally, has been reissued by Silverlight in
new packaging in the same style to that of London Express, so if
you don't have the first CD you might make a point of picking
both of them up for a matched set - and an unforgettably
captivating pair of amazing recordings.
www.elan-online.com