Lucky Elephant - The Rainy Kingdom
by Maarten Schiethart
published: 19 / 10 / 2014
Label:
Sunday Best Recordings
Format: CD
intro
Over-melodramatic and shamelessly derivative second album from French/English folk pop oufit, Lucky Elephant
Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well' serves as the blueprint for the carefree la-di-da excursion of the opening track, 'Old Kent Road'. Lucky Elephant borrow, or steal, even more on the next track, 'The British Working Man', and insincerity alarms begin to raise. Lucky Elephant threaten to beat Phoenix on the merits of unoriginality. With their singer Emmanuel Labescat whining like a lost French tourist on the tube, Lucky Elephant quickly return to 'Oh Well' aesthetics on 'Emperor'. The Fleetwood Mac travesty becomes even more of a toe-cringing affair on 'Buckets and Spades' with its distinctive sloping twang before this track loses itself in nasal, and frankly between you and me, indecipherable noodlings. The level of melodrama has by now reached a point of showing no remorse; but fortunately the opening track to side 2 of the LP, 'Flipside of Spring', improves uponr the album's tedious predictability, although, alas, only for a short while, 'The Girl I Love' soon sinks initial optimism. On 'Mercy', Lucky Elephant even manags to rhyme "river" with "fever", "water" and "ever" over a worn-out chord. On 'Helen' the clumsy French diction isn't any longer funny or charming. Second rate Godley & Creme melodics can't cover up the definite slime. Again repeating chords from 'Oh Well', 'The Rainy Kingdom' returns to snare picking and breezy guitar slides, but knowing no shame.
Track Listing:-
1 Old Kent Road2 The British Working Man
3 All the Streets I Have Known
4 Emperor
5 Buckets and Spades
6 Flipside of Spring
7 The Girl I Love
8 Mercy
9 Helen
10 Little Darlings
Band Links:-
https://twitter.com/luckyelephant_https://www.facebook.com/luckyelephantmusic
Label Links:-
https://twitter.com/sundaybestrecshttps://instagram.com/sundaybestrecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/sundaybestrecordings
https://www.youtube.com/user/sundaybestrecordings
http://www.sundaybest.net/
https://plus.google.com/105416440468177259314
soundcloud
reviews |
|
Starsign Trampoline (2009) |
|
| Compelling debut album from offbeat London-based outfit Lucky Elephant, who despite using instruments including an ukelele, farfisa and Wurlitzer sound surprisingly fresh and contemporary |
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