The first thing to work out with this album is whether Elks In Paris is the name of the record or a fancy pseudonym for singer-songwriter Eric Lichter and producer Ken Stringfellow. In a way, it's a bit of both. The Elks are not deer in the city but an amalgam of the creator's initials E.L. and K.S.
However, Lichter , a long-time member of Seattle's prolific Green Pajamas, is the brains behind the project. He wrote and sang all the songs and launched the Kickstarter campaign to fund his working holiday in the French capitol.
The destination was determined by virtue of the fact that this is where Springfellow lives. K.S. is co-founder of '90s jangly power pop band The Posies and ,with a recording CV which includes REM and Big Star, he is clearly no slouch in the studio.
Elks in Paris is a modest collection (33 minutes) of semi-acoustic, arty pop with plenty of playful psychedelics to add to its dreamy mood.
The gentle lilting tone of Lichter's voice and delicate pop tones give the album a similar summery mood to Grandaddy or Teenage Fanclub.
New York based singer-songwriter, Andrea Wittgens adds a little variety by singing back-up vocals on Leonard Street but, otherwise, this is Lichter and Springfellow's show.
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As well as singing, Lichter plays guitar and keyboards; Stringfellow plays just about everything else and supervised the recording over a ten-day period at Le Domicile Studios in the Bastille district.
The wide-eyed wonderment with the modern world and the bright melodies mean that there's a certain hippy sentimentality to tracks like Back To The Best and Posh ("Girls on horses are so posh").
But well crafted songs like Plan So Beautiful and Courtesy of Trees ("I figured out what I believe in") manage to be sweet and simple without being overly twee.
Though the ten songs were written before Lichter boarded the plane, one can imagine that the Parisian setting had some effect on how the warm. fuzzy glow that surrounds the finished album.
Elks In Paris website
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