The Essex Green CD Review
The Essex Green
Cannibal Sea
(Merge)
On Essex Green’s second album for Merge, third overall, they finally break rank with Elephant 6 psychedelia and foray into the testosterony Spector-pop world Belle & Sebastian currently inhabit.
While still tied to Ladybug Transistor and Sixth Great Lake, The Essex Green use Cannibal Sea to eradicate the “side project” tag as well as pesky, renaissance psych dabbling. Sasha Bell cautions “We’re not breaking any records yet,” on opener “This Isn’t Farmlife” while fuzz/tremolo guitar strobes in the background, but the thumping ’60s beat casts her more as Petula Clark than some forest sprite, reprised on “Uniform.” Downtown lights beckon further on the power pop “Don’t Know Why” and its surging harmonies, while minor-key folk pervades “Rabbit” in a Langford-esque shanty. But it’s not only Bell’s assuredness steering the ship; Chris Ziter pipes in like Peter, Paul & Mary’s lost brother Chuck on “The Pride,” lending credence there’ll be no mutiny with the new direction. Land ho!
— Steve Forstneger
Appearing: April 28 at Subterranean in Chicago.
The name of the album is not “Cannibal Green”…it is “Cannibal Sea”. Just wanted to point out that huge mistake within the text of the review.
This CD is wonderful. I saw them open for Isobel Campbell (formaly with Belle and Sabastian).