Kicking off with the brisk organ/guitar/bass/drums surge-drone of the title track, and with
Jefferies yelping through layers of distortion in a more rock & roll way than he has in years,
Elevator Madness carefully balances the artist's desire to try something different with further exploration of the styles through which he has made his name. Recorded in Canada with production from
Jefferies' Two Foot Flame bandmate
Jean Smith,
Elevator offers its share of surprises. Consider "The Strange Case of Stuart Townsend": what initially sounds like
Jefferies singing in a very strange register is merely the result of him singing without any extra tape manipulation and/or with much higher-end equipment than he normally uses. It's still very much a
Jefferies song, with nice piano work providing the bulk of the music and lyrics detailing the unexpected odyssey of a lost soul in America. The relative crispness of the recording can sometimes work against it -- "World in a Blanket" is, for
Jefferies, a straightforward number; it's almost the closest thing he's ever done to the blues, but it doesn't really stand out on any level. There's no lack of the crumbling strangeness or cryptic aggressiveness which
Jefferies has made his own, happily -- "Shut Out" is a very good example of this, as he rages over a thrashing, aggro-arrangement bolstered by
Smith on guitar. At the same time, misfires crop up; "Loop" doesn't offer much other than a two-minute series of noisy scrapes. In the end,
Elevator just doesn't quite have the consistent strength of his earlier works, though there are enough moments to make investigation worthwhile. The stand-out track "Satellites and Sparks" starts with a fine semi-waltz of piano and drums that, after an a cappella break, turns ever more driving and frenetic. ~ Ned Raggett