By Ashley Paskill
Nashville indie rockers Daniel Ellsworth and the Great Lakes released their latest album, Fashion, on August 24, 2018. The album was recorded over the course of a year at Nashville’s Elephant Lady Studios. Songs from the album were released as Chapter One and Chapter Two, and Fashion is the complete album. The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Kyle Andrews and mastered by Steve Fallone. It is being released via Color Party Records.
The band formed in Nashville in 2010 and released their first full-length album in 2011. Fashion is the band’s fourth album. The band is made up of Daniel Ellsworth on keys and lead vocals, Timon Lance on guitar, and Marshall Skinner on bass. The band experiments with a variety of sounds and mixes, pulling each song off with grace and talent.
From the first note of “Paralyzed,” electronic influences are present on Fashion. The song goes on to include rock-sounding guitars and drum while keeping an electronic sound throughout. The intervals between notes resemble the feeling of being paralyzed with lyrics adding a voice to the feeling. The song has a surface level meaning of literally being paralyzed, but it can also be taken on many other levels, depending on the listener’s perceptions.
While the same electronic rock sound remains consistent through the rest of the album’s 12 songs, the songs are all different. They experiment with different rhythms and mixes of sounds in each song. Though some songs are more serious than others, there are no super-slow songs. Instead, the songs use tone and various rhythms to get the mood of the song across.
Overall, the album is relatable, echoing real life. This song has a wide variety of feelings, from party pop songs that make you feel like dancing to more mellow songs that are never overly sad or wallowing in self-pity. The range of the vocals and the versatility of the instrumentalists shows the true talent that is hard to come by in an age of digital manipulation and using technology as a crutch for talent.
