'Ever-Roving Eye' Review: James Elkington's second album is a sparkling, somber modern folk masterpiece
Although James Elkington's latest record, 'Ever-Roving Eye', which releases on April 3, is only his second full-length album, the singer-songwriter has already made a name for himself in the American music industry over the past 20 years. Making Chicago his home after coming across the pond from England in the '90s, Elkington quickly established himself as an in-demand guitarist, producer, and permanent fixture on the city's improvisational music circuit. His own bands, the now-defunct The Zincs and The Horse’s Ha, were plenty entertaining while they lasted, but the hugely talented Elkington has made an even bigger impression on the music scene by playing with everyone from Mount Shasta and Tortoise to Richard Thompson and Wilco's frontman Jeff Tweedy. Besides this, he's even helped produce a bunch of albums for the likes of Joan Shelley, Nap Eyes and Steve Gunn. So it was really a question of when, rather than if, James Elkington's distinguished solo career would take off.
His debut album, 2017's 'Wintres Woma' was a study in folksy grace and elegant imagery. Buoyed by the reception of his solo efforts, Elkington started recording 'Ever-Roving Eye in 2018 itself, but it's taken him some time to finally come out with a finished product he's actually satisfied with. Perhaps that's what the 11-track album's title alludes to — a flitting, fickle, never-settling, ever-changing flux and flow of conclusions and circumstances with the passage of time. “You’ll be underground in no uncertain terms, and dozing with the worms," he sings on the twangy opening salvo against procrastination, 'Nowhere Time'. "There’s a master plan somebody understands, how I wish that one was me,” he wryly admits.
Elkington's finger-picking skills on the guitar are second-to-none, and his deep baritone and crisp songwriting lend itself to a modern album that is dark and melancholic by turns, yet gorgeous and melodic throughout. 'Sleeping Me Awake' is a Nick Drake-esque ode to anxiety, inspired by Elkington losing sleep over being asked to be a last-minute substitute on tour for Tortoise's Jeff Parker. "Be watchful of hyenas, you know that they're sincere / Do what you like, don't ask me to reappear," remarks the wary singer on the understated and witty 'Leopards Lay Down', while 'Moon Tempering' marries suspenseful minor chords with traditional baroque folk. This is certainly a dark record, but never overtly so — Elkington channels both sinister horror films and sunny 1960s folk with elan, tempering the melancholia of his subject matter with bright, warm tones and arrangements. "My friends make friends with horror," he croons on the sparkling Halloween-y ode 'Go Easy on October'.
Elkington has had some help in sculpting this sound along the way, with Nick Macri on bass and Macie Stewart on violin, plus new recruits Lia Kohl (cello), Spencer Tweedy (drums), The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman (vocals), and Paul Von Mertens (Brian Wilson) on woodwinds. The jangly and slightly off-kilter 'Rendlesham Way' echoes a hurtling downhill descent that the young James once made on a steep street back in England, while 'Late Jim's Lament' is a fever dream about always arriving late to one's destination, and eventually being late (dead) forever. "No matter how I drive I know I can’t out-drive the hearse / 'Cause it’s too late in my mind and getting later all the time,” he declares, while channeling folk hero Davy Graham.
'Much Master' is a soothing, spacey, bottle-slide & woodwind-fuelled ode to never relinquishing your grip on life, while the title track 'Ever-Roving Eye' combines a mystical Indian sound, gorgeous backing harmonies, and a yearning, earnest guitar solo to lovely effect. That unexpected guitar solo actually takes you by surprise, it's an ironically rare commodity on an album filled to the brim with virtuoso guitar techniques. Considering the album closer is just an edited version of the opening track, 'Nowhere Time,' it doesn't really merit repeating — but then again, perhaps it does, and doubly so. "It is time for you to move, better get somewhere to go," insists Elkington, and suddenly, more than ever, we're reminded that our short stint on this planet is fleeting, and we'd better make the best possible use of our time here. James Elkington has certainly done so on 'Ever-Roving Eye' and this album is nothing short of a modern folk masterpiece.