Outrageously Good Sophomore Album With Unexpectedly Excellent Production
Queensland Aussie natives Eliza (& her presumably delusional supporting duo) released their second full length album Make It Feel Like The Garden this month, bringing us an outstanding example of where quality songwriting meets well conceived & executed, albeit unexpected, production.
While the title track to the album gives us an emotive expression common to the existing discography of E&TD (copyright that please), surprises abound on this well-constructed LP. Track 3, “She Sits Up So High” gives us a bit more pop-sensibility with a traditional verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. all plied together well with a satisfying hook.
Big standouts on this album were the two singles released in anticipation earlier this summer, the ultra The 1975-esque “Falling For You” and “Somebody”. Falling For You is exceptionally well-produced pop; you really can’t better than this. Where the production pops-off pretty unexpectedly is the saxophone solo section of the bridge. Like, ok, damn.
I once had a calculus teacher say about a classic rock song, “don’t mind the orchestral section, it was the 70’s you can’t fault them for everything,” and while I certainly can empathize with most of the very poorly, over-produced neo-disco garbage that exists today (looking at you Silk Sonic), “Falling For You” and “Somebody” which also breaks out the horns, blend this into an actually good song in an exquisite way. Just when you’re waiting for the bridge to slide around for a bit before retreating back to the hook, we’re taken a different way completely, that still feels cohesive into the style of the song, not feeling shoehorned in inappropriately.
But don’t think the album stops there. At 52 minutes this isn’t a mini-album, EP excuse for a release, nor is it padded-out with filler songs of weaker quality (as long as you ignore the handful of interludes which artificially bump up the track count to a ripe 18).
“Another You,” “Hurts,” and “I Wanna Love You” hold things together in the middle, and blend well with the other tracks, despite varying moods evoked. Then we get a little Peter Gabriel quasi-world music percussion on “Everything That Isn’t Mine” and the subsequent track “Will She Know Today” evokes late 90s/early 2000s alt-pop-rock nostalgia a la Sixpence None The Richer.
At the end of the day, we have to applaud great new music like this. It cuts straight through weak pop song writing pervasive today (looking at you Taylor Swift) and overproduced elevator muzak force-fed to us by big artists, labels, and at times a general populace with taste tragically watered down by so many years of “vibes” being the only rubric for a song or artist.
Or…maybe I’m just one of the Delusionals after all…