Jack The Elbow - Crush

​Jack The Elbow

Crush
self-released; 2023

TOP ALBUM

​​By ​Dino DiMuro

Way back in 2019 in Birmingham, Alabama, a group of prog rockers was formed called Jack The Elbow. Influenced by the music of Coheed and Cambria, Karnivool, Rush, Yes, and Tool, they’ve spent the last few years in their basement studio planning, writing, and recording their debut album titled "Crush." The time and effort have clearly paid off!

Jack The Elbow is a three-piece group featuring Caleb Wilemon (guitar/vocals), Madison Langham (bass/vocals), and Michael Tucker (drums/percussion). They call their music “guitar-driven prog rock” and state that “moving riffs, both in the guitar and bass, are a constant feature.” They are also known to make sudden key changes at whim. However, these are not gimmicks but add to the band’s “clear focus on composition and quality songwriting.” When not recording, the band plays live shows and tours throughout Alabama. Thematically, the album explores rejecting conformity and creating one's own destiny.

The band recorded and produced the album themselves using Ableton Live in a basement studio designed specifically for this project, with mastering by John Douglass of Vorticist Studios. Though both guitars and bass sound like they’re blasting through a wall of amps, they are mostly recorded “direct” through a couple of passes of amp modeling software. The drums are the sound of real tubs boosted with sampled sweeteners.

Having heard the album through, I can say that the title "Crush" is absolutely appropriate, as these guys crush everything they touch. They present a constantly shifting puzzle of math rock, prog, and metal, with ever-changing patterns and a constant wall of sweet vocal harmonies. I find it interesting that a hardcore prog band like this came from Alabama, the same way that the band Kansas was born in sort-of-nearby Topeka, Kansas.

The opening track “Modicum Of Integrity” tells you everything you need to know about these guys. I remember being blown away by the Jimmy Page guitar overdubs in the Zeppelin track “Achilles Last Stand,” and it’s as if Jack The Elbow took the best moments from that song and built a whole style around it. The verses are hard-driving, but as we rock toward the choruses, the guitar melodies sprout harmonic and melodic outcroppings that steal my breath away, all the while glued together by assertive lead singing and stellar, sparkling choirs of vocal overdubs. And Dudes, thanks so much for including the lyrics! The final third of the song (just before the solo) takes an unexpected detour where the band’s musical debt to Rush and vocal similarity to Jon Anderson of Yes is clear.

“Going Under” starts in the same key as the opening track with a similar riff, so we feel like we’ve entered the second part of the same epic track. However, the musical invention is quickly multiplied. I can also hear bassist Madison Langham more clearly here. There are so many interconnected chord schemes that it’s easy to get totally lost, like in a corn maze. There’s a cool section that’s mostly bass, shimmery guitar, toned percussion, and voice samples, so I know that’s the middle! “Fly Away” takes a lateral move toward Van Halen-style riffage atop a Yes-like vocal arrangement.

“Off And On” thunders forth with an audacious, complex, and frighteningly heavy guitar and bass riff. The chorus is radio-friendly as always, but the rest of the song has its way with these crazed melodic variations, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve said it before but it’s nearly impossible not to imagine Jon Anderson and Steve Howe rubbing shoulders during this epic rocker. There are times in this album where I thought I heard a keyboard following along, and toward the end of this song, the keys and orchestral samples come out of the shadows for a quiet classical coda. “Shame” is one of the more interesting tracks (and that’s saying something). It starts with a fairly simple bass riff, goes into hardcore riffing, then has a section where the boys quiet down so much it actually sounds like Simon and Garfunkel! After that, the riffs actually feel derived from Irish traditional jigs. My personal favorite!

“Hills And Valleys” is an absolute riff-fest where there’s virtually no lyrics to get in the way of the nonstop invention. This moves without pause into “Phoenix,” another vocal-and-riffage fest that’s maybe just a bit more accessible to the average listener but every bit as awesome and celebratory. The closing cut (also the title track) is “Crush” and it hit me like an unholy mashup of Metallica and Yes, though for me that’s quite Holy. It’s obviously about yet another troubled relationship, and there’s nothing I like more than emotional upheaval represented by monstrous, complex riffing and time signatures! “So long, you won’t be missed / Our time has reached its end / And I know you probably never thought this day would come / But you have turned your back on me for the very last time.” I am SO here for this!

​I’m giddy over this album and can’t wait for everyone else to discover it too. Get to listening!

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