Last Minute Plans: Say Yes Yes Yes To Elsinore

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 20, 2010 6:30PM

Listeners don’t have to be as psychotically direct as Ben Kingsley was in Sexy Beast in order to affirmatively sing the praises of Champaign-based quintet Elsinore. In fact, the band’s latest release, Yes Yes Yes, repeatedly asserts its own quality right from the first track, “Landlocked” which, along with mid-album highlight "Chemicals," provides the record with upbeat, catchy rockers that guitar-driven, but allows for more subtle textures and emotions to creep in.

It's this attention to emotional sonic detail that allows Elsinore to write some deliciously melancholy pop songs. You know the kind: They're laden with aching multi-part vocal harmonies practically tailor-made for dramatic tenors. Tracks like “Body of Water” and “Breathing Light” are exquisitely sad songs that are positively impossible to forget.

But although Yes cubed excels at recalling The Antlers, Death Cab For Cutie and Jeff Buckley, there are times where Elsinore falls on the wrong side of grandiose orch-pop. “Lines”, for instance, does a commendable job at building slowly, but singer Ryan Groff overstretches his normally engaging falsetto, and the song, save for a gorgeous coda, suffers for it.

That said, such missteps are the mark of an admirable ambition, and, while most of Yes Yes Yes is designed as thoroughly engaging indie-rock comfort food, there are moments of calm, glacial beauty that suggest Elsinore is a group that is bound for further creative triumphs. In other words: Apply in the affirmative to Elsinore.

Elsinore, Canasta, The Bears of Blue River, TONIGHT, August 20, Lincoln Hall, 10:00 p.m., 18+, $10