Elliott Brood

Ambassador – (Six Shooter)

So there’s this band called Elliott Brood.

Don’t look for an “Elliott” in the band, because there isn’t one.  Elliott Brood is actually three guys that beat up their banjos, drums, and guitars to produce a howling and desperate dark sound that is often chilling and always captivating throughout their debut long-player Ambassador.  It’s hard to get enough of this.

Ambassador is a CD that seeps its way into your psyche not only because of the songs themselves, but thanks to the remarkably evocative way these guys play.  The end result on Ambassador is a set of songs that are actually quite diverse in their tone, but with a common undercurrent that can only be described as “menacing” most of the time.  It’s like watching a foreign film without subtitles and getting the feeling that, “uh-oh – something mighty bad is about to happen” but you have absolutely no idea what the hell it’s gonna be.  Ambassador has more than a few of those jolts.

The opening “Twill” marches along with its dirty and rusty twang and wailing vocal to the point where you really don’t know just what to expect from the rest of Ambassador – and that’s, of course, not only a good thing but likely the point.  From “Twill”, the band get faster and more furious on “President (35)” (go see them, and try to not pound on your table in time with this one) with a refrain that sounds like something you’d hear coming out of a revival tent.  Competing with that is “Wolfgang”, and if anyone thought that a banjo couldn’t sound menacing, this nicely proves them wrong.

What I especially like about Elliott Brood is that they don’t necessarily feel the need to deliver their unique sound in the same way over and over.  Songs like “The Bridge” are downright tuneful without compromising the band’s sound – and they can even deliver a solemn hymn in the ode to “Jackson” (as in Stonewall).  These aren’t mere diversions on Ambassador either – they integrate with the rest of the CD too well.

Ambassador isn’t just one of the finest things I’ve heard this year that many will put in the “alt-country” bucket – it’s just one of the finest things I’ve heard all year, period. And I fully expect this to fall on a few “best of” lists at year’s end.  I know it’ll be on mine.

9.0