As I already mentioned, Elastica's sounds are quite heavy. Most of the songs have strong overdrive in the guitars and the bass lines pound with lots of treble. The melodies are also quite heavy and melancholic. Two of the founding members were previous members of Suede, which ties this band even stronger into the Britpop cream. The album cover is quite cool in black and white with the band title in red. The members all dress in black and have a very clear 90s style. It's one of the very few Britpop bands where women were the majority, which is why I would hope for their legacy to be a bit bigger than what it currently is.
The album begins with the song Annie, which has a groovy, yet heavy beat with psychedelic guitar riffs that remind me of Blur, Sleeper or Echobelly. The next song, Connection, was one of the biggest hits for the band. It sounds like a song that would've been fun to jump to on their gigs. There are definite punk influences in this song. Car Song also has some interesting organ sounds and certain un-melodic qualities that make me think of 80s alternative rock, such as Pixies. Smile is again, much more of a Britpop song. There are clear similarities to early Blur albums. It also has aggressive guitar riffs and excellent melodic backing vocals. Hold Me Now has a lazy style vocals, but the guitar riffs keep the song together nicely. This song is a prefect example of laconic Generation-X aesthetics. S.O.F.T. sounds like a lost Pixies song. The piercing guitars and strong bass lines make that impression very strong. Indian Song, as the name suggests, has some Indian influences. At least if we think the psychedelic influences in The Beatles songs were Indian. Instead of sitars though, all of the psychedelia has been created by electric guitars and drums. Blue starts with a buzzing shoegazey guitars and calm vocals, but it grows into a wild punk rock song. All-Nighter has a fast tempo punk rock style that makes me think of Green Day's Dookie. Waking Up has nice and metallic sounding guitar sounds that remind me of some early Suede songs. This is one of the most melodic songs on the album and consequently, it's also one of my favourite songs on the album. 2:1 is also an amazing song. I remember this song from the film Trainspotting. The song is carried forwards by the hypnotic sliding bass line and the vocals sound softer than on rest of the album. The melody is very simple, yet beautiful. Vaseline is a wild punk song, which is perhaps a nod of a head to the 80s band Vaselines, that doesn't sound dissimilar to Elastica.
Music videos are essential for the 90s bands. I remember seeing this video for Connection quite a few times even if I wasn't very aware of who Elastica was at the time. The video has some cool expressionless live playing by the band and the video has been made with cut-out animation technique. The video makes the band look really cool!
I'm a bit sad that I didn't know Elastica as a kid when I was listening to bands like Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede. I'm sure I would've really liked their music around that time and I would've had more energy to move to Elastica's slightly tougher music. Now it feels like there aren't many situations where this kind of sound world would be really welcome. I just party a lot less these days. Still, if you don't know them that well, I truly encourage you to give them a chance to broaden your horizons on what Britpop was all about.
Listen to the album on Youtube.
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