Veröffentlicht
Jun 24, 2022
- The first album on Violet's naive label is a heartfelt tale of the ins and outs of clubbing over wonderfully dubby dance tracks.
- There's always been something intrinsically pure about ELLES music. Honest and heartfelt, she bares all, relaying funny and intimate anecdotes, often about nightlife, over ambient noise, field recordings and spectral techno. Most of her music has come out on Violet's naive imprint, and it makes sense. From the thrills of an extended gaze to the overwhelming memory of a rave epiphany, artist and albel share a sonic ethos that explores club music's ability to shape and cleanse our inner worlds. ELLES' debut album, A Celebration Of The Euphoria Of Life is, appropriately, meant as "a love letter to friends, lovers and anyone who has been lost and found in the dance."
ELLES carefully weaves together a narrative where clubbing serves as an act of defiance against the "endless cycle" where "everyday feels the same'' that she sings about on "Hope." Her voice has a detached, almost shoegazey disposition, embodying both the love and poison that comes saddled with this lifestyle. It's a world of no-strings-attached booty calls and turbulent pill come-ups, written while clubs were closed during the pandemic. Her refrain of, "I want to see all my friends at once, I want to hug my mum, I want go home," on the psychedelic haze of "Coming Up (Is Such Sweet Sorrow)" wraps substance-induced euphoria and pandemic-induced longing into a bittersweet bow.
"Hope" ticks away impatiently while ELLES urges us to cherish our humanity outside of the rat-race. She takes her own advice on "Out 2 4get," a charged trot through the streets of London delivered with a punky bite: "Go out to forget, I guess I'm not unusual like that," she admits.. "Anthem"—an unapologetically romantic highlight —shimmers coldly, as sparkling pads glide in and out underneath a piercing chord progression. Crashing waves on "Dry Ur Tears" and siren-like flashes on "Candyflip 60" are standout reminders of just how capable of a producer she is, seamlessly working in field recordings, while the album's second half has a handful of string-led passages that add a certain ‘90s gravitas to the songs.
In its brutal and sometimes funny honesty, A Celebration Of The Euphoria Of Life doesn't pretend that clubbing is a cure-all for existential ills. Instead, it highlights the freedom of expression that clubbing represents, especially after long days of monotonous work. ELLES relies on collective nostalgia along with her own ethereal incantantions to instill hope in the listener and alleviate self-doubt. On "I Think I Feel Sumthing," she repeats, "Anything is possible / For you," with increasing clarity and confidence. The mantra slowly surfaces at the forefront of the mix, an endearing fourth-wall break on an LP littered with intensely personal moments. She's aware of how ephemeral the pleasures that come with a high—or casual sex—can be, but those truths don't undermine the effects, or therapeutic potential of her message.
Because she feels like an authority on the matter—she once said her "ultimate goal is to make music that either makes you want to cry, dance or have sex"—her stories and snatches of dialogue hit harder than you mighit expect from her deadpan delivery. Dubbed a "love letter to clubbing and bodies in motion," the album unfolds like a dream sequence where, flaws and all, the familiar anxieties and ecstasies that come with a good night out are embraced in full. In doing so, ELLES implores optimism and, quite literally, the celebration of the euphoria of life both inside and outside of the club.
Tracklist01. Out Of Office
02. Hope
03. Out 2 4get
04. I Think I Feel Sumthing
05. Coming Up Is Such Sweet Sorrow
06. Anthem
07. Toilet Talk
08. Dry Ur Tears
09. Candyflip 69
10. Sex
11. Afterglo