Elliott Brood - Ambassador

Elliott Brood
Ambassador
Six Shooter, 2005

Ambassador’s outer sleeve looks like a wooden box, maybe meant to mimic a cigar box, or perhaps ammunition or something. The sleeve contains a reproduction of a train ticket from 1929 (one-way in coach, New York to Detroit, overnight), and includes album info on what looks like draughtsman velum. The effect (especially with the ticket) reminds me of the Who’s Live at Leeds. These are great details that downloading culture has made us forget that we love.

This album, like a good night of hard drinking, is a loose rambler, starting off with a determined momentum that slows over time, and fades into a melancholic trot as the album continues toward its conclusion. This is not to say that the album loses its purpose, but rather that like aging and arguing, things mellow with time. The album does the same, and it’s fitting.

Elliott Brood remind me of a cross between Luther Wright & The Wrongs and Pleased to Meet Me-era Replacements. There are raspy vocals and tweed-and-tube guitar licks over intricate banjo plucking, and a sense from the listener that the band has that tired-but-cool presence about them. Perhaps it’s endless touring. I’d suspect it’s the booze.

At points Ambassador flirts with being too straight for my tastes, sounding like a “rock album” in the way that the Black Crowes sounded like a “rock band”. But for the most part, with Ambassador, Elliott Brood have put together a solid record of indie-inspired alt-country, without being utterly cheerless or affected. It seems this is an album of deliberate intention, worth checking out.