Tuesday 25 February 2020

Elf Power - Gorging on the Elf Power



Elf Power formed in Athens, Georgia, United States in 1994. Currently, the line-up consists of guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger, keyboardist Laura Carter, guitarist Dave Wrathgabar, bassist Matthew Garrison, and drummer Peter Alvanos. They are part of the Elephant Six Collective. So far they have released 13 studio albums, starting with "Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs" in 1995 (recorded 1994), their most recent, "Twitching in Time", was released in 2017. Their 10th album, "Dark Developments", was a collaboration with Vic Chesnutt & the Amorphous Strums.

Compiling a "best" of Elf Power in my opinion would be an almost impossible task, and be at least 4 CDs in length! This collection is just a few favourites from 12 of their studio albums. I decided against including any tracks from the Chesnutt collaboration, as he wrote all the tracks and sang lead vocal, I see it more as a Chesnutt than Elf Power release. It's tough to recommend any particular album over another, as I like all of their releases, but if I was pushed to name my favourite 3 by them they'd be: "A Dream in Sound", released in 1999, "Creatures" in 2002 and "Back to the Web" in 2006.

Thanks to Manerg who suggested a few songs for inclusion, and finding the excellent artwork for this collection. As usual info containing track origin & year of release is tagged in the files and in the download file. I hope you all enjoy!

  1. The Well (3:25)
  2. Things That Should Not Be (2:46)
  3. You're Never Gonna Go to Heaven (1:59)
  4. Rolling Black Water (2:32)
  5. Walking With the Beggar Boys (2:50)
  6. Temporary Arm (2:18)
  7. Shadows in Vain (2:55)
  8. The Frightened Singers (0:43)
  9. Leopard's Teeth (3:28)
10. Heads of Dust, Hearts of Lust (1:44)
11. Little Black Holes (3:04)
12. Halloween Out Walking (2:46)
13. Total Annihilation (3:31)
14. Needles in the Camels Eyes (3:04)
15. Three Seeds (2:44)
16. All the Passengers (2:06)
17. Back to the Web (3:32)
18. Don't Let It Be (2:41)
19. Birds in the Backyard (2:32)
20. A Tired Army (2:26)
21. Drug Store (1:39)
22. Pay to Cum (1:40)
23. Carnival (0:51)
24. Watery Shreds (2:55)
25. An Old Familiar Scene (4:11)
26. Wander Through (1:59)
27. Everlasting Scream (1:59)
28. The Cracks (2:58)
29. Spectators (2:17)
30. Nothing's Going to Happen (5:39)



6 comments:

tomconstanten said...

just found your blog and love it...the anthologies and folks sets really have introduced me to new sounds, and im appreciate you sharing the music!!

Anonymous said...

if you wanted to make a volume 2 (or 3!) of Elf Power, here is one vote!

slugbucket said...

Thanks Tom, glad you enjoyed. Anon, maybe some day in near future there'll be a volume 2 of Elf Power, but I have a few more anthologies lined up before then. But I'll definitely keep it in mind!
Also big thanks for all the recent comments, I do really appreciate it. Cheers.

Rob said...

Love Elf Power! Thanks so much. Love the site too. Saw Elf Power right after Beggar Boys came out. They opened for Arcade Fire. Great show. Keep up the good work!

zipper said...

Elf Power had completely passed me by...until now. Many thanks SB for serving up such a great introduction to another band I'll be keeping an ear open for in the future.

Dark Imperial Blue said...

Great post, thanks