Elvis Perkins – The Doomsday EP
Elvis Perkins
Elvis Perkins is a throwback to a bygone age, his music sounds classic, old fashioned even, but oddly it doesn’t sound dated. What Perkins does is take a time machine back, capture a moment and channel the emotion through song. How he does this is in itself rather remarkable, and testament to his qualities as a musician. The criticism, however, will always be: why is an appropriation of the past relevant today?
‘Doomsday’ is an odd celebration, opening with a triumphant jaunty trombone; the song is American unashamedly, but testament to a forgotten America, upright bass rattles along like an old skeleton jiving in the antique closet. A deserted sense of joy bounds out of the speakers, as Perkins celebrates life by dancing close to death.
‘Gypsy Davy’, an arrangement of the traditional folk staple makes Perkins sound like a contemporary of Woody Guthrie, his vocals weathered and tingling nervously, one imagines ice cubes clinking against a tall glass filled with lemon barley water. The country rock drift of ‘Stay Zombie Stay’ moves on a couple of decades, before we leap back another decade to the fifties, strawberry milkshake and blood red Cadillacs, everybody twisting and shouting to ‘Stop Drop Rock and Roll’.
‘Weeping Mary’ again drops back in time to take a place at the table next to Guthrie, like The Almanac Singers reborn Perkins sits on a porch with a few of his companions and sings a song about a sailor getting crucified. ‘Slow Doomsday’ then shuffles aimlessly along like a melancholic barfly on his way home to the missus, bringing the EP to a somewhat inauspicious end.
I posed a question earlier, and adding to that question I wonder exactly is the point of Elvis Perkins? What would we be saying if a singer songwriter chap from the UK mimicked George Formby? Or if a female singer was influenced by the voice and style of Dame Vera Lynn? Chances are we would accuse them of being out of touch and though as I mentioned in the introduction the music has a fresh sound, the classic influences are overwhelmingly apparent. I suppose we’ve had Amy Winehouse channeling vintage Motown, but there was a car crash fascination about her personal life that always overshadowed the music and added an extra allure. With Perkins we have only the music, but it seems to be buried so deeply in the past, I don’t believe in Perkins as a songwriter, but I will admit he is a superb musician and a great imitator. I suppose it depends what you are looking for as a listener, if you want well crafted songs then this EP is full of them, if however you want innovation and originality then you are best to look elsewhere.
No related posts.
