EL VY is the somewhat awkwardly-named new project from The National’s Matt Berninger and Menomena’s Brent Knopf. Whilst it is a tad difficult to disassociate Berninger’s voice from his more famous band, his deep velvet-made-of-molasses voice is about the only similarity here.
Quirky, light-hearted, perhaps song-making-while-drunk is more the vibe with EL VY. Knopf seems to be a talented instrumentalist as there are many a varied instrument played, in many a varied style. Possibly a tad too many actually - as the album lacks a certain cohesion; it starts with the title-track which is an up tempo rock-ish number, but after that it goes in almost all the directions imaginable under the ‘indie rock’ umbrella.
This randomness is perhaps a by-product of it being a side project, it seems Knopf and Berninger were trying to fit in all their ideas and influences onto one record. It smacks of trying to be edgy and cool (read: name drop The Cramps), but it comes across as a little “try hard” as you would say in your intermediate school days. Individually the songs and their workmanship are pretty good (I think I’ll pass on any more songs about having your wang out in public though), and they have some quite cool videos, but it seems the pairing of the two musicians doesn’t gel as well on record as they do as friends.
