This is the latest record from Indiana singer-songwriter Joseph O’Connell, AKA Elephant Micah. O’Connell is an experienced song-writer with an impressive, prolific history over the past decade or so. Despite his already expansive repertoire, I’m really impressed by this set of songs- especially by his approach to stringing them together as a record. The outside help here is limited to percussion by O’Connell’s brother and the occasional instrumental or vocal assist by Will Oldham of Bonnie Prince Billy fame. The songs here are emotive, complex and expansive. It’s easy to get lost in the spaces created within these tracks, a quality that reminds me of Jason Molina’s powerful-yet-dissonant expression on 2002’s Didn’t It Rain.
Elephant Micah/Where In Our Woods/Western Vinyl/2015
Choice Cut: "By The Canal"
Next of Kin: Songs : Ohia, Bonnie Prince Billy, A.A. Bondy
Rating: Green Light
