Eluvium
Similes
Rating: 3.0/5.0
Label: Temporary Residence Limited
An expert on atmosphere under the moniker Eluvium, Matt Cooper has raised his abilities in the sphere of ambient music to very lofty heights. His 2007 release Copia was a below-the-radar masterpiece that pushed Western classical melodies through a prism of surreal earthy and celestial wonderment. Perhaps this is why it makes sense for him to sing for the first time on his fifth LP, Similes. Now that he has established the skill and vision to create memorable soundscapes, the time seems ripe for him to step into them with a human voice. Though Cooper's singing doesn't set the tone for the record, it delineates some of the weaknesses he faces while trying to move forward. His instincts within familiar music territories are just too powerful to allow new ideas to seep in through the cracks.
But the burning question remains; "Is Cooper a good singer?" Well, he's pleasant sounding but not very distinct. It's easy to see how his quiet, baritone voice was once replaced by a piano or an electronic effect on other albums. Most of the time, the lyrics can't even be distinguished over the music, making them just another ingredient in the mix. Memory recalls that when Kaki King did a similar about-face from largely instrumental guitar music and started singing more often on ...Until We Felt Red , it was a bit bolder. King tempered some of her virtuosity and willingly struck out towards unfamiliar pop territory, but the closest Cooper comes to the same realization is on "Making Up Minds," when he finally resigns his epic score to the back seat for a good portion of the song.
Maybe this is a bit of a false dichotomy. Similes has some singing, but about 90% of it is still an ambient record and a pretty good one. It's just something that's been made by Cooper in the past and with more inventive compositions. Some of his reliance on sparse classical music as a bedrock is shelved for more Eno-like abstraction, as on the high-pitched radiance of "Bending Dream." However, the same instrumentation returns with the super-abundant piano parts of "In Culmination" and "Weird Creatures." Sonically there's always been a consistency on Eluvium records that's hard to shake. Laying down a simple keyboard-based melody and using a laptop to stretch it into a world's worth of lushness is just what Cooper is good at. Even if we've visited these areas before on other records, it's hard to complain upon returning to such beautiful places.
Since Cooper wins this event on points, Similes might be a good introduction for listeners unfamiliar with Eluvium. As a kind of clearinghouse for his varied appeal, the accessible epic sweep of "The Motion Makes Me Last" is quickly countered with the multi-textured 11-minute finale, "Cease to Know." The problem is that this feels very much like someone's fifth release. A musical language which has been defined in the past by Cooper is being reiterated like a small commuter flight that loops back and forth. Eventually, the thrill of flying yields to the recognition of sameness and monotony. Still, from the passenger seat, it's quite a view.
by Neal Fersko
