Spittake
meg elsier's big, beautiful grungepop edifice
Originally hailing out of Boston (fuck yeah), Berklee grad and now Nashville based songwriter and visual artist meg elsier has been slowly working things out on an existential level through her maturation and her relationship with songwriting and performance. A once reluctant storyteller, despite knowing she had something to say, she’s definitely found her voice, and it’s extremely compelling.
Spittake was a long time coming, but once she found her footing and her ability to trust herself and producer Ryan McFadden, things really came together. The two got to tinkering, and the album began spilling organically out of an intense collaboration over meg’s raw ideas and vestigial sketches of songs. Multiple demos written and recorded solo by elsier over a significant span of time eventually transformed into a solid yet bespoke reflection of their cumulative vision and meg’s persona.
A little self-deprecating, a little sexy, and a lot pop-savvy muscular guitar grunge, the album moves effortlessly through colorful shades of self-aware anxiety and big, real life issues including identity and purpose. McFadden and elsier are clearly a fluent in-studio team, because for a debut album, Spittake flaunts a seriously major league and sure-footed sound. Waxing and waning with cavernous combinations of reverb and overdrive, the crumbling, distortion drenched guitar and keyboard tracks blend together seamlessly as they collide at the upper extremes of the available sonic headroom. The vocal tracks skillfully manage to sometimes mingle with the extra-large sound and other times completely stand out from it, despite whether she’s whispering sweet nothings or belting out an offering to the heavens.
iznotreal seems like a good introduction to the whole package that is meg elsier. Video credit Jacqueline Justice
Disobedient pop stylings and gnashing, industrial-traffic jam guitar noise are layered over an almost orchestral, atmospheric backdrop of sound, giving the album a profound and sometimes disorienting vibe that I can’t really get enough of. It’s one of those albums that you can play on repeat and lose track of whether it’s played once or three times. There’s a lot in there, and you’ll keep finding new twists and turns the more you listen to it.
Oldnews hits like a pop song that went to prison and is back to visit for family dinner. Video credit: Jacqueline Justice
Her music videos, made in collaboration with Jacqueline Justice, are visually eccentric and delicious works of art, which comes as no surprise given the creative drive that they both share. There’s a thread of mystique running through all of them, almost thematically. The costumes, lighting, performance and production, just like the album, have a swagger about them that feels finely polished and fully fledged.
ifshitfuq leans in on the fun pop sounds without betraying the album’s edge. The video is infectious. Video credit: Jacqueline Justice
Meg and her band are about to kick off a tour with the Chicago based lady-savant powerhouse Finom, starting in Detroit, running up around through Canada, down through New England, New York and Pennsylvania. You will absolutely, one hundred percent kick yourself if you blow the opportunity to see this lineup.