You'd think Elizabeth Elmore would be sitting in clover, wouldn't you? I mean, look at her: she's smart, she's beautiful, she's the lead singer and songwriter for a really excellent rock band and she's a graduate of Northwestern Law School. Short of saving a bunch of preschoolers from a runaway bus or curing cancer, what could she possibly do to feel better about herself? And yet here we are, another very accomplished Reputation album in hand, listening to self-loathing lyrics like "You're always so sick of me / yeah, you tell me all the time / but if I'm selfish and hateful / you're lazy ungrateful." And still, ever the overachiever, Elmore dips her tales of failed and failing relationships in sugar, the kind of effortless hooks you swallow whole. You feel the barb later, after it's lodged in your throat.
Elmore does such a good job camouflaging her angst that I initially dismissed To Force a Fate as a little shallow, musical chick lit, easy to digest and forget. It was only in the second week of listening that songs like "Face It" started to pop for me, the scratchy riff and soaring melodies caught in an Escher diagram of hooky bitterness. Listen to how the pure pop "Yea-ah-ah-ah" morphs into the hard-eyed self awareness of "as soon as you think you're fine / you fall so far behind." Or listen as the chaotic rock energy of "Bottle Rocket Battles" melts into the bare and breathy chorus -- a chorus which, by the way, nails a dead-end relationship in three lines.
Elmore's songs tend to sound elliptically autobiographical, like things that have happened, pretty much, with a lot of the connective narrative chopped out. "Cartography" is noticeably more image-laden than Elmore's other songs, more metaphor and less revelation. It's still about love gone wrong, but more contemplative musically and lyrically.
To Force a Fate is a densely musical album, thick with contrasting guitar lines and propulsive rhythms. Reputation regulars Sean Hulet (guitar), Joel Root (bass) and Steve Van Horn (drums) provide the frantic pulse that transforms confessional, melodic songs into rock anthems. There's a wall of guitar sound at the back of album standout "Some Senseless Day", a dramatic contrast to Elmore's very feminine, pop-leaning voice, and that, in this case, is all anyone needs. However, several of the tracks on To Force a Fate are elaborately arranged, deftly weaving multivoiced harmonies, strings and horns around the melody. This sweetens tracks like "March"; Elmore sounds almost like 10,000 Maniacs-era Natalie Merchant here, smooth and warm and thoughtful at the center of twining harmonies and Nate Walcott's trumpet.
There's something disturbing about the way To Force a Fate's songs evolve as you listen, turning into something bitter and dark -- like letting the candy-coating melt off your antibiotics before you swallow them. This album is not as easy as it seems...but you've got to embrace the difficulty. That's what makes it worth listening to.
-- Jennifer Kelly