Since her previous album, 2000’s The Reputation, Elizabeth Elmore finally found a permanent lineup for her band. She also wrapped up work on her law degree. Guess which career path won out, for the time being?
If Elmore’s half as good of a lawyer as the songwriter she becomes on The Reputation’s sophomore album, she’s got a ridiculously lucrative future winning frivolous lawsuits winning damages from spilled coffee, in-flight turbulence and botched boob jobs. Heck, she might even be able to represent Axl’s increasingly outlandish claims against his label and band mates. Courtney Love’s legal troubles? Well, let’s not lay the praise on too thick to be believed.
To Force a Fate takes The Reputation even farther away from Elmore’s power-pop days in Sarge, and, most startlingly, singer/guitarist Elmore and company show that their increasing sense of maturity fits the band to a T. Although guitars buzz through gooey melodies on “Let This Rest,” a track that could have been part of Sarge’s Distant (2000, Mud), everything after that album opener showcases Elmore’s always growing songwriting skills. “Bottle Rocket Battle,” another basic power-pop number, adds guitarist Sean Hulet’s vocals to give Elmore’s breathy voice added punch. Farther into the album, The Reputation backs off the throttle for more straightforward pop numbers. The moody and soulful “The Lasting Effects” takes a jangly guitar and pushes Elmore’s delivery toward winsome in a track that plugs Lois Maffeo’s twee pop into a power-pop stetting, and “Some Senseless Kicking Around” brings back the distortion, but not the speedy tempos, for a chunk of smoldering indie pop. Most impressive, however, is “The Ugliness Kicking Around,” a track built around a somber piano figure that calls up string arrangements and low-key guitars to build from a drowsy piano number to a tightly wound, orchestrated number that’s fuller and louder than anything a simple pair of guitars could produce.
There are some down points – the back-to-back “March” and “Senseless Day” let the album slip into a lull of meandering pop that’s more graying than maturing – but To Force a Fate continues with the trajectory of respectable pop maturity that The Reputation (2001, Initial) promised. What’s better, The Reputation falls easily into its role as indie-rock middle-agers with a comfort and freedom of which its previous could only dream.
- Matt Schild