I never heard the “original” of Drinking Songs by Matt Elliott which came out in 2004, but now he’s realised an alternative version of that album, with the exact same songs only re-recorded with the help of Anne-Elisabeth DeCologne on bass and Barbara Dang on keyboards. Everything else, including guitars and saxophones, is played and sung by this talented fellow who used to be Third Eye Foundation in the 1990s.
Today’s release Drinking Songs Live 20 Years On (ICI D’AILLEURS IDA163) coincides with the 20th anniversary of the original, supposed by some to be a form of “dark folk”, and which was evidently so popular that the label put it out as a vinyl reissue in 2011, and it went through two represses to cope with the demand. The original release had better cover art – cleverly insinuating the concept into a European between-the-wars milieu and obviously intended to evoke the depressive spirit that led many an absinthe drinker to suicide. That said, the Victrola on today’s item does hark back to a similar era, and even further back in time if can discern the Mocha influences in those swirls of abundant hair on the pipe-smoking nude who smiles at us with the self-assurance of a femme fatale. I get the idea that Elliott is alluding to great human tragedies, including deaths at sea, world wars, and “victims of the USA’s foreign policy”, and accordingly each minor-key setting is an opportunity for him to issue laments, plaints and whines in a slow and painful manner. This is especially effecting on ‘The Kursk’, where he pretty much does it without words for nearly 17 mins. With its simplistic chord changes and limited progressions, it’s unlikely to be mistaken for the compositions of Kurt Weill or even a torchy ballad from the 1920s.
Mostly an acoustic album, but for those who yearn for Elliott’s electronica, tune in to ‘The Maid We Messed’ which adds incongruous layers of beats and sequencer squelches to the dirge-like tune. (01/11/2024)