Elana Brody – The Garden
Elana Brody is releasing a new EP The Garden this week, with an impressive lineup of featured musicians from bands backing Big Thief, Ani DiFranco, Jewel, Bruce Hornsby Band, and more. Songs on The Garden bespeak reflections amidst hazy imagery and natural themes, as they are appropriately titled with names like “The Swan,” “The Insect,” The Sun,” “The Garden,” “the Afternoon” and “The Rain.”
Elana’s soprano tones are striking against the piano and low cello as the EP opens with “The Swan.” “Make me a love like this, in the feather bed of the forest floor… did you figure out just what beauty is for,” she sings in winding pathways of the simple and true fundamentals of love. “The Insect” follows suit claiming that “I will honor the whole of you” from the perspective of feeling smaller than an insect and then it builds up to wide overjoyed proclamations: “there’s so much new born in the fruits of beauty.”
On the title track, Elana again paints a garden daydream with a more painful memory as the setting: “mama said to be a man here you’ve got to roll up your sleeves, go to the garden and pull the weeds… I found music to listen to when I sleep.”
“The Sun” starts out with crescendoes on synthesizer and sustain, as Elana’s lyrical character feels she is the richest woman to ever walk on the earth…. I am in paradise.” In listening, you’ll feel everything is going fine, as long as you’re alive. In “The Afternoon” the vocals showcase Elana’s wide range hitting highs and falling to quiet lows in moving romanticism over frolicking strings.
Elana paints fantasy love scenes and dreamscapes of the best of nature in reverie, in a lilting vocal that rises and falls richly over hill and dale, expressing powerful longings for perfect scenes and poetic expressions. It’s an indie folk dream.
Musicians on the EP are Elana Brody on vocals; Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic) on winds and pump organ; Emily Hope Price (Ani DiFranco, Sting, Ingrid Michelson, David Wax Museum) on cello; Jason Burger (Big Thief, Andrew Bird) on drums; Erik Kertes (Michael Buble, Shakira, Melissa Etheridge, Jewel, Rachel Platten) on bass guitar; Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic) on pump organ and winds; Matt Williams (Zansa) on viola; Bobby Read (Bruce Hornsby Band) on saxophone and synthesizer; Dane Alderson (The Yellowjackets) on electric bass; Stuart Gunther on drums; Samara Jade on mandola, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar; and Kiara Ana Perico (Adele, Panic at the Disco, Ariana Grande) on strings.
Keep up to date on Elana Brody here on her website: https://www.elanabrody.com/
The album was produced by Erik Kertes, Alec Spiegelman, and Elana Brody; engineered by Erik Kertes, Alec Spiegelman, and Bobby Read (“You are the Sun”); mixed by Erik Kertes and Alec Spiegelman; and mastered by Dan Coutant of Sun Room Audio.
