Elvis Deluxe: The Story So Far

Polish Stoner crew Elvis Deluxe have been on the go now for ten years, slowly building their profile over that time to the stage where they've come close to reaching "next big thing" status. However whether their first release for Metal Mind Records, The Story So Far is the offering to take them over the top I'm not quite sure. Not that it is bad, far from it actually, but more because it is a strange mix of part new material and part retrospective. One of those odd neither one thing nor the other type jobs and it shows.

The opening five tracks are brand and spanking, their newness still shiny and wet, while there's a pair which reach right back to 2003 and one 2006. None of these earlier recordings have officially seen the light of day before, which is a surprise, as they are all pretty nifty, although the approach compared to the fresh material is starkly different. New track "Face It" crawls along on a winding guitar line of crushing melody, "No Reason" hits like almost sparse, brittle, freakish Blues and "Your Godfreed" builds ever so slowly into crawling intensity. However vintage offering "Out Of Life" then jumps around all jaunty and gleefully, romping like Queens Of The Stone Age, revealing a band still looking for an identity. "The Hope" following closely, if somewhat more dirtily in its footsteps. "Search And Destroy" the 2006 track, on the other hand is a Stooges cover and good though it is, there's little bearing to what has come before from either era on this release.

In the end all eight songs on The Story So Far are well worth hearing, but with only the opening five really holding the imagination, or indeed featuring the current line-up, then in truth there's a disappointing whiff of stop-gap about the whole shebang. Which when you consider the standard of the new tracks makes for a bit of a missed opportunity.

For Elvis Deluxe fans, this is still a must have release. However for anyone interested in hearing what all the fuss is about, sample previous album Favourite State Of Mind to discover just how potent this band can be.

Track Listing
1. Yourgodfreed
2. No Reason
3. Dark Lovers
4. Face It
5. Something To Hide
6. Out Of Life
7. The Hope
8. Search And Destroy (The Stooges cover)

Added: September 28th 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Elvis Deluxe on BandCamp
Hits: 1664
Language: english

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