Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Elyse Weinberg

"Elyse" 1968

Picked up for reissue in 2001 by Orange Twin Records and earmarked as a rediscovered psych-pop classic, this long-overlooked record is primarily composed of quietly plucked acoustic guitars, overlain with Elyse's Elyse Weinberg's hearty vocals, which bear some resemblance to other endearingly hoarse-voiced performers like Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge, and her fellow Toronto contemporary, Joni Mitchell. The air of psychedelia is fairly faint, springing up in the mystical traces of sitars that appear in songs like "Deed I Do" and in lyrics that refer to lovers with names like Sir John Velveteen. In its day, sometime in 1968, the record drew praise from many circles and even earned Elyse a spot on The Johnny Carson Show. However, subsequent records were left unreleased and Elyse faded into history. Elyse is lo-fi, in that the record itself is fairly straightforward musically and that, while the release is on CD, one can hear the crackle and hiss of vinyl, perhaps indicating that this reissue was not remastered from the original. However, given the tone of the music, the low-level record noises are a positive thing, adding to the overall feel of this record's vintage status. The quiet acoustics take a back-seat on "Spirit of the Letter," which is a full-on rock song, and somewhat surprisingly, largely better than many of the quieter songs. Perhaps the record's most noteworthy track is "Houses," a gorgeous song about the impossibility of trading places; beautiful on its own, its brilliance is amplified by featured guest Neil Young. The album-closer "What You Call It," and in some ways the album as a whole, brings to mind the longing tone of Jeremy Enigk's sans Sunny Day Real Estate effort, Return of the Frog Queen. — Karen E. Graves

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello, my name is Titus Luxor.
I make music.
Here is one of my albums:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CAWHL01K

09 May, 2007 20:07  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now here is one I've been wanting to here for a long time....thanks my friend

09 May, 2007 23:04  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great canadian lp,
she played around in the "yorkville" folk club scene.
love this LP.

i think nielyoung plays guitar on this and don galucci (stooges, don & the gootimes) produced...

10 May, 2007 14:10  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank U very much..it was what i'm looking for..:) God Bless you.

12 May, 2007 03:30  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks so much for posting this. Really nice to hear it.

13 May, 2007 06:38  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Neil Young in This Album? No wonder it's gorgeaus Music..he is like Midas king every thing he Touchs turn into Gold :)..Sorry for my English

19 May, 2007 02:12  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This looks interesting...

An unreleased test pressing of a different stereo mix of this record is currently selling on ebay. It's supposedly more psychedelic. Search Elyse Weinberg test pressing and you'll find it... or here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ELYSE-WEINBERG-UNRELEASED-MIX-TEST-PRESSING-PSYCH-FOLK_W0QQitemZ180322527945QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMusic_on_Vinyl?hash=item180322527945&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

21 January, 2009 17:20  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man, I'd love to hear that alternate mix on the test pressing.

11 February, 2009 08:05  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe that went so cheap. This is one of my favorite albums of all time, I would have sold off a lot of stuff to pay almost any price I had to for that test pressing!

06 March, 2009 08:37  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

does anyone know where to find lyrics?

13 March, 2009 16:59  
Anonymous Blair said...

Dinosaur Jr. covers "Houses" on the deluxe version of their new album Farm. Check it out.

03 July, 2009 20:25  
Anonymous z. rolodosh said...

elyse played fairly recently (2008) in canada at the pop montreal festival backed by a band called saffron sect.

07 December, 2010 15:39  

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