Elefant
Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
Kemado/Hollywood
To be perfectly frank, I need another New York fashionista band like I need a Pauly Shore comeback. That being said, it wasn’t difficult to build up a wall of stereotypes before listening to the debut from this latest array of NYC pretty boys. Fronted by preordained sex god Diego Garcia, Elefant melds drunken romance with a smattering of that garage-y Strokes sound I’ve come to know, love and now use as a coaster.
Garcia abides by the Paul Banks school of wistful poetry, but he simplifies the Interpol singer’s usually esoteric musings for something more elementary. The bass lines provide a solid, ass-shaking underbelly to both the title track and synth-laced ditties like “Tonight Let’s Dance,” two of the better offerings here. But when the band really piques interest, as on the Mercury Rev-ish psychedelia of “Static On Channel 4,” its two-minute pleasure is all-too-brief. Sunlight has its moments, but they’re hardly memorable or magical, and my stereotypes were all but justified. As Garcia professes “I wrote this song last night while I was sober” on “Misfit,” one thinks a little bit of the sauce might’ve helped here.
Elefant: http://www.elefantweb.com • Kemado: http://www.kemado.com
