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Artist
Elanors
10+ albums
about
Chicago's Elanors, vocalists Noah (piano) and Adriel Harris (guitar) backed by the rhythm section of Daniel Johnson and Rodrigo Palma (both members of Judah Johnson). This, their second album, is a collection of piano-driven orchestral-pop and disarming folkrock invention. Like concert music for dirty clubs, Elanors’ music is delicate yet severe; mannered yet devastating; antique yet futuristic. It’s often said that everything good to come out of music in the last 40 years comes from the Beatles. But for inspiration, Elanors instead dip into the centuries of material which preceded the ‘60s – Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Britten – and set their own blurred, romantic, and fractured song-pieces to sub bass and elastic beats. There’s a precedent for this; bands like Blonde Redhead and Radiohead have used baroque chord progressions and melodies to gorgeous effect; and Jeff Buckley and Talk Talk used sprawling, almost symphonic forms, which rethought what a rock song could be. Elanors see themselves both as part of this great tradition as well as innovators within it. A first encounter with the music of Elanors can be beautiful but disorienting – if only because today’s music listener wants to classify something to appreciate it. But for Noah Harris – lead vocalist, pianist and songwriter for Elanors – that moment where something draws you in for sheer beauty alone, and you set aside your need to understand it, is the essential moment in the appreciation of art. Noah, after perfo
