Artist: Elvis Perkins
Year: 2007
Label: XL Records

Track Listing

1.”While You Were Sleeping” 9/10
2.”All The Night Without Love” 8/10
3.”May Day!” 9/10
4.”Moon Woman II” 8/10
5.”It’s Only Me” 9/10
6.”Emile’s Vietnam in the Sky” 9/10
7.”Ash Wednesday” 8/10
8.”The Night & The Liquor” 7/10
9.”It’s a Sad World After All” 9/10
10.”Sleep Sandwich” 8/10
11.”Good Friday” 9/10

Final Grade 95/100

Elvis Perkins father, the great actor Anthony Perkins, died a painful death in 1992 of complications related to AIDS, when Elvis was 26. His Mother, Berry Berenson, died in a plane on the September 11 attacks. While he started work on his first album before his Mother’s death, it is clear that the death of his Father and Mother was very influential in the albums creative process. As Elvis states the very title ‘Ash Wednesday’ “refers to being left on Wednesday with nothing but ash, because [my mother] died on a Tuesday – being left with ash on September 12. That was also the day my father died, September 12 [1992, of Aids]. It first occurred to me on Ash Wednesday itself – my consciousness was largely ruled by having lost my mother six months previously”.

Giving his history a person would expect an album full of death and destruction, an album asking questions that nobody can really answer, but Elvis Perkins is smart enough to go a different route. What he delivered is an album that is honest and based in reality, true it is full of lost and yearning, but it is also full of beautiful imagery, imagery of someone who has truly lived. The album opens with the haunting and beautiful ‘While You Were Sleeping’ (my favorite track on the album) where in his best Rufus Wainwright says “while you were sleeping, the babies grew, the stars shined and the shadows moved, time flew, the phone rang, there was a silence when the kitchen sang, its songs competed like kids for space, we stared for hours in our maker’s face, they gave us picks, said go mine the sun, and gold and come back when you’re done”. Elvis Perkins walks a fine line the entire album between the beautiful images he sees and the hardships he’s experienced. Musically he reminds me of Paul Simon and a dozen other folk singers, but he doesn’t copy a particular one, a rare feat. Overall it was an extremely strong debut and a promising effort from a very talented singer songwriter. If you are looking for good modern folk music, it will be hard to beat this album.