Elliot Minor - 'Still Figuring Out'
Things hang in a delicate state of balance around this band. They're former choristers who play rock-type music, they're breaking through to the wider consciousness, but also generating a certain amount of friction from the rocksnobs who can't deal with a guitar band whose music is enjoyed by young girls. Now they're releasing a song which seems perfect for radio-play and general ear-tweaking excitement, but it's a bit sugary, compared to the startling baroque 'n' roll of their last single 'Jessica'.
Not that there's anything wrong with sugar in music, it's just that this particular confection not quite as mouth-watering as the last one. It's a bit like when you buy 100 grams of winter mixture from one of those shops that does olde worlde sweeties like what they used to have in the olden days.
One of them, and it's almost impossible to remember which, is a perfect combination of fragrant spice, tartness and honeyed acidity. One of the other ones tastes like ginger dipped in curry powder and aniseed oil, and is disgusting, but the constituent flavours are much the same as in the delicious one (the others vary in flavour from being almost as good as the really good one, to being almost as bad as the really bad one). So you can't really quite pinpoint what it is about the delicious sweet which makes it delicious, when the same flavours are in the disgusting one, and it's disgusting.
Or, if tortuously long similies aren't really your thing, what 'Still Figuring Out' gains in ramalama immediacy, Busted-style pop fizz (in the verses especially), and earworm catchiness, it seems to lose in character. Not by a huge amount, and it's probably more to do with how very different 'Jessica' sounded when it first arrived than any flaws in the song itself.
And they do score an extra point for the last 20 seconds, in which musical ideas are thrown around like confetti at a confetti-tester's wedding (outside a church which encourages the throwing of confetti, and even supplies its own, in massive confetti-buckets), and the already over-speedy pace seems to get ratcheted up a notch or two.
That's the kind of thing which appeals to the sweet tooth in all of us, right?
Download: Out now
CD Released: January 28th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
Thank you Fraser! You're quite right, it's a lovely sweet song, though you forgot the single in between Jessica and this one! The White one is Evil came out in the week that everyone but everyone released their singles (October?) and was much less sugary. (Tsk, music reviewers.)
I'm intrigued by the confectionary similie. Clever, but I'm worried for my poor Fraser. Has he had a scarring experience with the ginger/aniseed sweet? Prehaps we should start a movement for the abolition of the disgusting type and save others from the horror.
Hannah x
[That's the problem though...I don't know which one it is! - Fraser]
Woopity woo, going to see them on friday in oxford! My 1st gig in what feels like an age!!
Wow!
the single version is a lot better than the demo version
love it :)
I agree!
This song is soooo catchy and I love everything about it
Always loved this song ever since I heard the demo...but the single version sounds a million times better!
I suggest everyone should go and buy it, because they'd be missing out otherwise.lol
xXx
They were amazing!! And it was worth trecking from one side of Oxford to the other in the dark where I've never been before to see them :D
And at the end we met them and they signed stuff and let us get photos taken with them :D :D
And Dan told me to skip my school trip to London so I can go to the Still Figuring Out signing on tuesday but I can't :(
That's a link to my pics if anyone wants to take a look :)
Elliot Minor are the only band getting me excited about music at the moment (no I'm not one of the McMinor fans...I don't have anything against them though I love any EM fan xD).
You forgot the brilliant The White One Is Evil...but I do agree this is EM most 'sugary' single yet but still rockstar worthy - surly this proves they have more range as a band than most.
I don't know why people are so scared to just embrase a undefinable style of music?!
Both myself and my 11 yr old son love this song as much as the others ( have a listen to Parallel Worlds too... fantastic!). It is different to Jessica, but they would be very boring if all their songs sounded the same, it just shows how versatile they are. they have great music, play their instruments extremely well and have fantastic harmonies. Their videos also conjure up a real atmosphere. I cant wait until they come to a seated stadium near Manchester so I can take my son to see them. Sorry, cant think of a negative point to balance this out, but there you go.....!!!!!!!
OMG i cant belive they were number 17 they are so much better than tht souja boy song! cant wait until next week cause they shud b in tht top 10 ! im gonna spend loads of money buying more! and promoting them there the best band to come out of york ever! and i love the guys loads!
chrissie
biggest elliot minor fan ever!
x
Elliot Minor are gonna be huge! They've already released 4 singles and have over 69000 friends on myspace. I've got their latest single and it's awesome.... you should all get it and help them get into the top 10... they deserve it. I'm going to see them on 29th Feb and I can't wait....
Good Luck Guys
Lorna From the Street Team
:]
its great that you say Still figuring out is good
cant wait to see them again in April and might get to meet them this time :D