Review by Karen Anderson
Elad Love Affair is a hardcore band mixed with punk and a trace of emo. Think Pretty Girls Make Graves meets Cursive and At the Drive-In. Elad Love Affair can be insightful, mournful, and confrontational. The music can be somewhat calm and then explode. There are some really interesting guitar tricks in A Woman Gives Birth to a Gun and it Stabs Her like in the beginning of the song “On Wifeburning.” Bill, Ryan, and the Marks really show their talent and variety in this CD. There’s even a nice piano part at the end of “The Pardon Me End of the Knife.”
Hmm, what to say about the vocals? The vocals make this CD rather hard to listen to. They are a high pitched, ear-splitting mess. In fact when I first put the disc in I cringed, but after I had time to work up my tolerance level I could actually listen. Nola’s voice isn’t actually that bad, the problem is she seems to be straining it throughout the entire CD. Also the words are completely inaudible. It sounds like she’s singing in tongues. The other problem I have with Nola’s singing, though her voice is interesting, is the fact that she sings every song pretty much the same way.
The lyrics, which I love, are very stream of conscious. They leave the listener with some very interesting imagery and interpretations. One of my favorite lines is don’t mean to burst your blimp / as hooves crease lips poised in smiles / saw them all clean raped with Clorox / it’s time to run away with the knives in “My Life As An Automaton.” There are also some great metaphors like blood clot apologies in “The Pardon Me End of the Knife” and some great similes like ambition splattered like a nosebleed in the song “When You’ve Run out of Words to Eat, You’ve Only Got Yourself.” Elad Love Affair also takes a serious note in the song “On Wifeburning” which has some really strong lines such as a wisp of saliva saved the fist force / do you want a full grave? / on your last day or wrapped up in pieces / body stencil on the door.