Elvis Perkins knows how to turn lemons into fine lemonade. For a guy who has found himself saddled with "Next Dylan" baggage and has enough personal tragedy-turned-backstory to potentially swallow his output, he's continued to hammer away at an increasingly sturdy songbook. Earlier this year, Perkins' second full-length, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, found him with a full band at his side, three other guys to propel further his voyages in mortality and universal (though highly personal) woe. Subject matter tended to veer stubbornly towards the dour, but the arrangements were bright, with each song wrapped in warm layers of true blue American sound.
Perhaps the record's strongest, no song better exemplifies Perkins' ear for the sublime as "Doomsday". It's a brassy, New Orleans-style processional that gains lift with every bass thump and sterling strum, Perkins admitting early on that, yeah, things got pretty grim back there and, yeah, it could stay that way, but screw it. "I don't let doomsday bother me," he sings. "Do you let it bother you?" The song now bookends his new EP of the very same name. But to close, Perkins has refashioned "Doomsday" in its original incarnation as an equally soulful, yet much more somber gospel number.
The shift in mood works really well sonically, and it also fulfills a bit of listening requirement. This dessert release is a stand-alone six-song exercise in tinkering with the foundations of American music. "Gypsy Davy" is a folk standard that Perkins wires up and detonates just before the two-minute mark, adding some squall and the brand of gloom he's come to embody. On the bouncier side, "Stay Zombie Stay" is an undead love story you might have copped as a digital bonus track with the aforementioned full-length. Once a strummer, it's now a twangy shuffle as well as lead-in to "Stop Drop Rock and Roll", a by-the-numbers roadhouse shakedown that doesn't add much to the conversation even though it both rocks and rolls.
"Weeping Mary" is truly luminescent, Perkins and his band riffing faithfully on the spiritual. It's not successful because it stirs but because it also showcases just how naturally and elegantly he and this band can sink their teeth into the forms in which they've been nesting. With the exception of the lone cover in "Gypsy Davy", Perkins has assembled a small sampling of songs here all with their own very healthy set of bones. And like its twin, the closing undressing of "Doomsday" makes for engaging and sumptuous listening. It's one of six looks back, on material both his and tradition's. But it's no step forward. Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.
